Painting is one of the most influential areas of art. The power of the image can transfer the viewer to a completely different time, place or even another reality. Any artist seeks to convey the image, meaning, or vice versa in the most detailed and plausible way - to show it in a veiled way so as to encourage a person to think, analyze, and sometimes seek answers in other areas of art.
A few words about the artist
Vincent Van Gogh is a unique personality, an innovative artist who has created many masterpieces in various styles. Although during his lifetime he was able to sell only one of his paintings, today the author is one of the most popular and discussed. Particularly noteworthy is that in fact Van Gogh was self-taught. Of course, private lessons played an important role in improving his skills, but he gained most of the knowledge, independently studying educational literature, mastering various techniques and styles of painting. Such a stubborn desire to become an artist speaks of the strength of character of a genius. He sought to work - to work greedily and quickly. In some periods, Van Gogh painted one painting every day - that is why today we have the opportunity to see almost all of his path embodied on canvas.
Styles in the wizard
The artist has come a long way in becoming his own style. His training in painting began with the creation of small sketches written in simple pencil. Van Gogh did not think that a painting was just a free manifestation of fantasy, so he carefully studied textbooks, took lessons and, of course, practiced a lot. This initial stage passed under the banner of realism. Van Gogh's “Shoes”, his famous painting “The Potato Eaters”, and some self-portraits can be attributed to this period. One of the first works was the painting “Roofs” depicting the view from the window of the artist’s room. Many subjects were inspired by peasant life - this is how the paintings “Two Women on a Heathland”, “Lodges”, “Women in the Dunes for Repairing Nets” and many others appeared.
Myths and truth about the creation of the canvas
The story of Van Gogh's Boots is associated with another work by the author, Potato Eaters. The latter was created a year before the “Bashmakov” - in 1885. The painting depicts five peasants at the table, an ordinary evening meal of poor workers. Not a single character has legs visible here - it is understood that the shoes have already been removed and are waiting for the next working day. And Van Gogh took all these shoes to a separate canvas. Some art historians even combine these 10 paintings under one common name - “Old Shoes”.
Another hypothesis is that Van Gogh himself bought the shoes depicted in the picture of the same name on a flea market from a worker. They were rude, but quite clean and decent. After the first walk in the rain, the shoes got dirty and took on an even more interesting look, which the artist decided to capture. One way or another, Vincent Van Gogh’s “Shoes” has an obvious connotation. She conveys the image of a poor peasant life, and, moreover, does it better than any other canvas describing hard work.
One way or another, Van Gogh's “Shoes” is a realistic reflection of reality. Two old shoes stand casually abandoned by their master.
Technique and colors
Vincent Van Gogh admitted that he did not use any system or special techniques for applying paint to the canvas. Even in a letter to his brother and close friend Theo, he wrote: "There is no system in my strokes, I put them on the canvas with uneven strokes of the brush and leave them as they are. There are no shadows in the picture, and the color is applied flatly, as in Japanese engravings."
But, absurd as it may seem, Van Gogh's “Shoes” can hardly be called a surrealistic picture, it seems so elaborated and thought out. Each bend is drawn with incredible accuracy, although looking at it, you can really notice only individual, sometimes incoherent strokes, which surprisingly combine into an absolutely seamless canvas.
Many critics quite logically explain one color temperature and gray-brown tones by the fact that Van Gogh's early palette was rather stingy, because he began the artist’s path by creating small pencil sketches.
Several other works from the cycle “Old Shoes”
Van Gogh's “Pair of Shoes” draws before us a completely different view of the owner of the shoes depicted. This is no longer dirty peasant shoes, but, apparently, the shoes of a worker from a factory or other “clean” production. The sole of one boot is generously lined with nails that have already been polished by constant walking. Moreover, they seem to be endowed with a soul and even talk to each other! Take a look at how carefully the left shoe is leaning over the fallen right. As if he were asking his friend if everything was okay with him.
Psychology of paintings
Van Gogh's image of old boots can be regarded in many ways. The first point of view is quite simple to understand, it says that the artist simply wanted to reflect the hard fate of an ordinary peasant or worker in his works. And the picture of old, worn-out shoes would best convey this idea.
And the second point of view offers us a much deeper and philosophical reflection. Shoes are the personification of the soul of their owner. Looking at their trampled and cracked soles, we see how difficult the life of the person who wore them was, how many spiritual wounds he suffered, how exhausted his life was in its uniformity and severity.
The philosopher Heidegger wrote about the paintings of the cycle: "From the dark, worn-out inside of these shoes, the hard work of hard-stepping feet stays at us motionless while working in the field. An alarming concern for future bread comes through in these shoes."
Without a doubt, Van Gogh is a genius. He worked with incredible dedication, very quickly and eagerly. That is why now we have the opportunity to see so many of his unusual works. Any plot of it is filled with deep experience, philosophical thought, psychologism or just contemplation of the beautiful.
Most of the scripts are kept in Amsterdam, at the Vincent Van Gogh Museum. Some works of Monet, Gauguin, Signac and Picasso are also presented there. The original Van Gogh painting "Boots" is now also in this museum.