Wooden Houses, Boston
1930
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 12.5 × 17.5 cm (4 15/16 × 6 7/8 in.) sheet: 20.32 × 25.4 cm (8 × 10 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Murray H. Bring)
Accession Number
2015.19.4219
Art Historical Context
Walker Evans captured the modest charm of *Wooden Houses Boston* in 1930, a gelatin silver print that exemplifies his early mastery of documentary photography. This 12.5 × 17.5 cm image (on an 8 × 10 in. sheet) depicts tightly clustered wooden structures in an urban Boston neighborhood, likely highlighting the vernacular architecture of working-class communities. Evans, a pioneering American photographer, approached his subjects with unflinching realism, eschewing artistic manipulation to reveal the textures and geometries of everyday life. Printed using the gelatin silver process—prized for ...
About the Artist
Walker Evans · 1903–1975
Walker Evans (1903–1975) was born on November 3, 1903, in St. Louis, Missouri, to an affluent family; his father, Walker Evans Sr., worked as an advertising director. Raised across Toledo, Chicago, and New York City, he attended elite preparatory schools including Phillips Academy in Andover before briefly studying French literature at Williams College, from which he dropped out after one year. A ...