Ein Arbeiter aus der _Großen Spinnerei von Edam_ c. 1894

Rudolf Gudden sketched "A Worker from the Great Edam Spinning Mill" with graphite. Here, the worker’s wooden shoes, or clogs, are more than mere footwear. They are a potent symbol, resonating through time and cultural memory. In medieval Europe, peasants wore similar wooden shoes, a practical choice, but they also became emblems of the working class. Think of Van Gogh’s worn-out boots—each crease and scuff tells a story of hardship and resilience. These clogs, too, whisper of labor, connecting Gudden’s worker to a lineage of toil. The rhythmic, almost meditative act of working becomes a ritual. In this sense, we see the psychological impact of labor on the individual, subtly embedded in the mundane details of daily life. The motif of humble footwear resurfaces again and again, evolving each time, reminding us that these symbols, these shoes, tread a cyclical path through history, carrying echoes of the past into the present.