Paar laarzen 1856 - 1897

Henri-Charles Guérard etched these boots, an exercise in the study of form, a meditation on the object, if you will. These boots, humble and worn, carry a weight of symbolic meaning, deeply embedded in our collective consciousness. Think of the 'sotadic' vase, a ceramic from ancient Greece depicting two pairs of intertwined feet, a precursor to these boots. The feet, the foundation, the very ground we tread upon. The presence of these boots speaks of a psychological weight, a primal connection. Boots protect us, they carry us forward, echoing in Van Gogh’s renderings of footwear. Over time, as civilizations have risen and fallen, the boot remains, evolving in form yet constant in its psychological resonance. The image resonates beyond its surface. It’s a cyclical recurrence of themes, each artist drawn to these archetypal symbols, reinterpreting them through their own cultural and historical prisms.