Peasant Shoes My Foot Painting By Richard Barone

Year:

Medium:

Oil Painting

Size - (USA):

34 W x 30 H x 0 D (inches)

Size - (metric):

86.4 W x 76.2 H x 0.0 D (centimeters)

Theme:

Impressionism

Edition:

Original

Artwork ID:

634878

PDF Copy:

Artwork Info Sheet (PDF)

Artwork Description:

There have been various interpretations of Van Gogh s painting Old Shoes. The most famous is German philosopher Martin Heidegger s essay The Origin of the Work of Art. He interpreted the shoes as belonging to a peasant woman thus supporting his philosophy of Dasein. Meyer Schapiro criticized this essay by saying that Heidegger projected his own philosophy into the painting and missed one important aspect: the artist s presence in the work. The shoes speak as a portion of the self. This is very much in line with Van Gogh s letters, which reveal how he conceived and composed paintings. French philosopher Jacques Derrida defended Heidegger s interpretation, but to no avail. Reliability of equipment shoes could only be essential to the peasant woman, whereas Van Gogh s equipment was not the subject of the painting. He might have painted the shoes in bare feet for all we know.

Artwork Keywords:   Van Gogh, Heidegger, Peasant Shoes, Old Shoes, Original Painting

Materials:   Oil Paintings