Woman's Shoe

Art Historical Context

This watercolor and graphite rendering on paperboard, created around 1939 by Daniel Marshack, captures a woman's shoe with careful attention to form and detail. Measuring just over 14 by 11 inches, the work belongs to the Index of American Design, a collection at the National Gallery of Art dedicated to documenting America's decorative arts and material culture. The Index of American Design employed artists during the late 1930s to produce precise illustrations of historical objects, from furniture and textiles to clothing and everyday items. Marshack's piece reflects this documentary approach, using watercolor to convey color and texture while graphite provides structural accuracy. Such renderings preserved visual records of craftsmanship that might otherwise have been lost, offering insight into American design traditions and historical fashion. Today these works invite viewers to appreciate both the original artisans' skill and the artists who recorded them with such dedication, connecting us to the nation's cultural heritage through objects as familiar as a woman's shoe.

About the Artist

Daniel Marshack · 1911–1995

Daniel Marshack was an American artist born around 1911 whose death date remains unknown. Little is recorded about his early life, training, or teachers, as is common for many of the hundreds of artists employed on New Deal-era public art projects. He is known today almost exclusively through his contributions to the Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administrat...