DescriptionIn the summer of 1936 Walker Evans collaborated with writer James Agee on an unpublished article about cotton farmers in the American South, which eventually became the seminal book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" (1941). For four weeks in July, Evans made photographs of three sharecropper families and their environment—intimate, respectful portraits of the farmers, as well as their homes, furniture, clothing, and rented land. This study of a clean-swept corner is the twelfth plate in the book; it recalls Agee's observations of the significance of "bareness and space" in these homes: "general odds and ends are set very plainly and squarely discrete from one another. . . [giving] each object a full strength it would not otherwise have."

ProvenanceArtist; [George Rinhart, Inc., New York (1974)]; [Harry H. Lunn, New York]; [...]; [Fotomann, Inc., New York]

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsInscriptions: Inscribed in pencil on mount, verso, center: "2-12"; bottom left: "FSA 264 // #694"; stamped in ink with numbers inscribed in pencil on mount, verso, bottom right: "Walker Evans // II [in box] 86 [in box] // WALKER EVANS"

NotesLibrary of Congress number: LC-USF 342-8137A

Additional DetailsMounted