Shoes

1720–39

Not on view

For all the floor-sweeping plenitude of fabric in an eighteenth-century gown, feet were not forgotten as an opportunity for the expression of refinement, luxury, and style. Paintings of the period invariably represent the delicacy of finely wrought shoes bared by the aristocratic sitter as she crosses her legs at her ankles or knees. Standing, it is the toe and counter of her shoe that are discretely exposed. Although the front of the shoe bore the greatest embellishment, as it was the part most exposed, the "Louis" heel, with its delicately sculptured profile, is what has come to characterize the style of the period. The fine line of white piping between the sole and the upper is a detail that, for the most part, disappears after the mid-eighteenth century.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Shoes
Date: 1720–39
Culture: European
Medium: (a, b) silk, gold, leather
Credit Line: Purchase, Millia Davenport and Zipporah Fleisher Fund, Irene Lewisohn Trust Gift, 2001
Object Number: 2001.748a, b
Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

More Artwork

From the same time and place

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Shoe buckles, metal, rhinestones, American or European — Shoe buckles
American or European
late 18th century

Shoes, silk, leather, French — Shoes
French
1690–1700

Waistcoat, Anna Maria Garthwaite British, silk, wool, linen, metal, British — Waistcoat
Anna Maria Garthwaite
Peter Lekeux
1747

Waistcoat, linen, silk, metal, British — Waistcoat
British
1615–20

Ensemble, (a) wool; (b) silk; (a, b) metallic thread, probably French — Ensemble
probably French
ca. 1730

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