by Richard Barone

Artwork Description

Peasant Shoes, My Foot

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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. This painting reveals several levels of being: Van Gogh's shoes; Van Gogh's painting of his shoes; my painting of Van Gogh's shoes; my stepping into Van Gogh's shoes; my identification with Van Gogh's original intention.

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