Doche - original drawing 

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen sketched this drawing, ‘Doche’, using pencil and crayon. The artist plays with contrasts, opposing youth and old age. The old woman holds a dancer’s accessories. Stockings and shoes are potent symbols, suggesting sensuality and the ephemeral nature of beauty. The shoes, particularly, speak volumes; think of the swift-footed Mercury, and the dance, a timeless expression of human emotion and physical prowess. These symbols reverberate through time, echoing in Botticelli’s ‘Venus,’ who rises from the sea, ready to adorn herself, or even the tales of Cinderella, where a shoe becomes a token of identity and transformation. The presence of the old woman introduces a somber note, a memento mori, reminding us of the fleeting nature of youth and beauty. She is like the old woman in the painting "Las Hilanderas" by Velázquez, a subtle reminder of the passage of time. The collective memory of such images evokes a profound sense of the cyclical nature of life, where symbols reappear, transformed yet recognizable, in the theater of human existence.