Still life with shoe and mirror 1906

Natalia Goncharova took a look around her studio and decided to paint a still life with a shoe and a mirror, and of course, flowers. Imagine her in the studio, wrestling with this weird still life, pushing around the forms, trying to make them sit still long enough to be painted! The daisies explode from the vase, their white petals shot through with energetic yellow strokes. The flowers look ready to burst from the canvas! I’m thinking about the shoe, sitting there solid and black, contrasting with the ephemeral bouquet. And the mirror, reflecting back the scene. It is a painting about seeing and reflecting – literally and figuratively. There is also a nod to cubism here, just look at how the composition is broken up into planes and facets, offering multiple perspectives. Goncharova's like a fellow traveler, working away in her studio, finding new ways to see the world.