A Madonna of the Tenements
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
10 × 10 (image, oval); 17.8 × 12.6 cm (paper)
Classification
gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11347
Art Historical Context
**A Madonna of the Tenements** (1904) is a poignant gelatin silver print by Lewis Wickes Hine, a pioneering American photographer whose work captured the human cost of industrialization. This oval image, measuring 10 × 10 inches, evokes the sacred iconography of the Madonna and Child, reimagined amid the harsh realities of urban tenement life. Hine, best known for his documentary photography exposing child labor abuses during the Progressive Era, here turns his lens on immigrant families crammed into New York's Lower East Side slums, blending artistry with social advocacy. Created using the g...
About the Artist
Lewis Wickes Hine · 1874–1940
Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940) was born on September 26 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Douglas and Sarah Hine, who ran a coffeehouse and restaurant on Main Street. After his father's accidental death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound around 1892, the teenage Hine supported his widowed mother and sisters through various jobs while pursuing education. He attended Oshkosh Normal School, where he met ment...