Pair of Wooden Shoes (Sabots) [left]
1889/1890
![Pair of Wooden Shoes (Sabots) [left] by Paul Gauguin](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/nga/thumb/pair-of-wooden-shoes-sabots-left-nga-112663.webp)
Medium
polychromed oak, leather, and iron nails
Dimensions
overall: 12.9 x 32.7 x 11.3 cm (5 1/16 x 12 7/8 x 4 7/16 in.)
Classification
Sculpture
Department
CSD
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Collection
Accession Number
1963.10.239.b
Art Historical Context
In the late 1880s, Paul Gauguin, a pioneering Post-Impressionist artist, ventured beyond painting into sculpture during his time in Brittany, France. Created around 1889–1890, *Pair of Wooden Shoes (Sabots) [left]* captures the humble clogs worn by Breton peasants. Fashioned from polychromed oak—wood hand-carved and vividly painted—with leather straps and iron nails, this small sculpture (just 12.9 × 32.7 × 11.3 cm) transforms everyday footwear into a tactile work of art. Part of the Chester Dale Collection at the National Gallery of Art, it exemplifies Gauguin's fascination with folk traditio...
About the Artist
Paul Gauguin · 1848–1903
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose bold experiments with color, form, and subject matter made him one of the most influential figures in the transition from 19th-century art to modernism. His rejection of European civilization for the perceived authenticity of 'primitive' cultures established an archetype of artistic exile that continues to resonate. Gauguin's ...