Evening Shoes 1926

Émilie Charmy painted these evening shoes with a loaded brush, heavy with ochre and crimson oils. Imagine her studio, the smell of the paint, the light, and the soft pad of her brush making contact with the canvas. The shoes are not new. They’ve been worn and loved, but their time out is over. The warm red underneath is suggestive – is it a blanket, a cushion, or a discarded dress? The composition is so simple: two slippers, side by side, painted with thick strokes, resting. This feels like a painting by a woman, for a woman. The ochre of the shoes is picked up in the background, grounding them in the same world of tonality, but it's the smears of white that catch my eye, hinting at satin and adornment. Charmy’s mark-making here is so intimate, so quiet, yet the tension between domesticity and the life lived outside the home vibrates on the canvas.