Still Life with Slippers 19th-20th century

Editor: Here we have Denman Waldo Ross’s “Still Life with Slippers”, currently at the Harvard Art Museums. It's an intimate and vibrant painting, very gestural. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: The painting disrupts traditional still life expectations. Rather than passive objects, the slippers, rendered in such bold color, suggest a narrative. Consider the gendered history of domesticity and leisure associated with slippers. Editor: So, the slippers become more than just objects? Curator: Precisely! They become symbols, perhaps of lived experience, of the body at rest or even of rebellion against societal norms dictating female roles. What do you make of the composition? Editor: I see. I guess I was seeing just a pile of things. Now I'm seeing more. Thanks! Curator: Art is always about seeing more.