Vincent van Gogh is a world-famous artist, he belonged to post-Impressionist painter. So many excellent works he had created, such as The Starry Night, Sunflowers and cafe terrace at night, etc. His paintings were famous for its bold color and rough beauty. van Gogh’s painting had a great influence on the art 20 century . However, though he is considered as one of the history’s greatest artists all over the world, his received little appreciation when he was alive.. Then after his death, most of his works were accepted and gained a lot of fame. Totally, he produced a large number of more than 2,000 artworks.

Many of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings had attracted much attention and now shall we keep our eyes on one of his paintings — A Pair of Shoes. What Van Gogh painted is a pair of peasant’s shoes. In his mind, the shoes are not a pair of physical shoes in real life, nor being used as instrument, but a complete perceptual world which is full of implication. From broken hole inside the shoes, we can feel the burdens of labor work.

When we are looking at these hard and heavy old shoes, we are able to be aware of the repeating and dull work in the fields. The peasants are slowly working with constancy of patience. Their shoes are covered in wet and fertile earth. After the night falls the peasant wearing this pair of shoes moves slowly on the path. In his pair of shoes, the wordless call of the earth echoes, revealing the earth’s silent praise to the ripe grain and symbolizing the earth’s meditation about the deserted fields during the winter time. The shoes are imbued with stable anxiety on the bread and wordless joy from getting rid of poverty or trembling either when giving the birth or the death approaching.

The content of A pair of shoes is in accordance with its title. It does depict a pair of ragged shoes laying quietly on the field, just like two brothers stay together closely, suggesting that the painter’s deep feelings about it. In fact, most of Vincent’s late paintings are somber, but somehow they reflect some sort of optimistic.