Slipper 1935 - 1942

Daniel Marshack made this watercolour drawing, Slipper, with quiet observation and gentle strokes. I can imagine him carefully building up the tones to give the satin slipper its luminescent sheen and delicate form. The surface is smooth, the colours muted; like a whisper of an image, a ghost of a shoe. I feel the tenderness in the making, the attention to detail which makes it so intimate. He finds the sublime in the mundane. I wonder if he was thinking about past lovers and happy memories when creating this piece. This reminds me a little of Morandi who painted bottles over and over again, as if in doing so he might capture their essence, or a secret about life itself. There is something about this slipper that strikes me as essential too. Ultimately, Marshack is in conversation with so many artists across time who find beauty in simplicity and seek to reveal the extraordinary within the ordinary.