Three Pairs of Shoes 1886 Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge
Van Gogh made Pair of Shoes (F255) from a pair of boots he purchased at a flea market. He wore the boots on an extended rainy walk to create the effect he wished for this painting, which may have been a tribute to the working man. The Van Gogh Museum speculates that they may also be symbolic for Van Gogh of his "difficult passage through life."[54] Of his walking through mud to make the shoes look more worn and dirty, Van Gogh was known to say "Dirty shoes and roses can both be good in the same way."[55]
Van Gogh's friend and fellow artist, John Peter Russell, received Van Gogh's Three Pairs of Shoes (F332) in 1886. Russell had painted a portrait of Van Gogh that he dearly loved. In exchange for the portrait he had given Van Gogh, Russell selected Three Pairs of Shoes and a lithograph copy of Worn Out (Eternity's Gate) (F997) that Van Gogh made in 1882. Russell selected these works at a time when Van Gogh had begun to make more colorful work. Russell's selections indicate that he understood who Van Gogh was and the messages about the peasant or working man that he wished to convey through his work.
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