Breakfast Room, Belle Grove Plantation
Walker Evans, American, 1903 - 1975
1935
Gelatin silver print
Overall: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through a gift from the Class of 1935
PH.973.7
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Label
This image captures the tortured and ghostly nature of abandoned plantation homes. Until the Belle Grove mansion burned down, it served as a haunting reminder of the violent practice of slavery and the impermanent nature of the opulence of the Antebellum era. Built in 1852, this Greek revival plantation home sat for 100 years on a sugar plantation in White Chapel, Louisiana. During its operation as a plantation, up to 150 enslaved people at a time worked this land. After the Civil War, the mansion slowly decayed until the remaining structure burned in 1952.
From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, curated by Abigail Smith '23, Conroy Intern
Course History
SART 65, Architecture I, Karol Kawiaka, Spring 2012
SART 65, Architecture I, Karol Kawiaka, Spring 2013
SART 65, Architecture I, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2014
SART 65, Architecture 1, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2020
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
SART 65.01, Architecture I, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2021
SART 65, Architecture I, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2022
SART 29.01, Photography I, Virginia Beahan, Fall 2022
SART 65.01, Architecture I, Karol Kawiaka, Fall 2022
Studio Art 65.01, Architecture I, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2023
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, Abigail Smith, Class of 2023, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 8–February 27, 2022.
American Photography: 1850-1980, Barrows and Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 26-May 20, 1982.
Hail, Holy Land: the Idea of America, Strauss and Barrows Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 27-September 7, 1980.
Homage to Walker Evans, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 1975.
Palmer Lounge, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 1973.
Remembrance of Things Past, Prints and Photographs from the Class of 1935 Memorial Fund, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-September 2, 2000. [Curated by Jennifer Reily, Class of 2000, Class of 1954 Intern for the 65th Reunion of the Class of 1935]
The Image Impressed, Lower Jewett Corridor, The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 25-July, 1985.
Walker Evans, Artist-in-Residence, Jaffee-Freide Gallery, The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 27-November 26, 1972.
Provenance
The artist; sold to present collection, 1973.
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