The Shoe

In its composition very similar to the painting with the same title in the Museum’s collection, this drawing is remarkable for the subtlety of its palette. In it the shading of tones overlying the charcoal lines displays a fluency lacking in the canvas. The Shoe is not typical of Biéler’s oeuvre. His wife, decorator Jeannette Meunier, is the model for this intimate work, made in 1931, the year they were married. Leaning forward, she fastens the strap of one shoe, while the other lies on its side in the drawing’s foreground. The whole composition is based on the tension implicit in this seemingly insignificant act.