Velvet Slipper c. 1940

Melita Hofmann made this drawing of a velvet slipper with what looks like coloured pencil on paper. Isn’t it something? I’m always so interested in the way artists choose their materials, especially when it seems so simple. The colour is built up so gently in these soft, smudgy layers, like the slipper itself is being slowly revealed, not just drawn. See the way the marks follow the form? You can almost feel the nap of the velvet. The grey interior is particularly nice, a cool contrast to the warm pink of the slipper. There’s another, fainter drawing above. A ghostly footprint? Perhaps it is a failed earlier attempt. It reminds me a little of some of the paintings by Giorgio Morandi, another artist who found endless possibilities in a limited palette. Hofmann invites us to consider the beauty and potential in the simplest of subjects. This drawing is less about perfection, and more about the tender act of looking, and feeling.