Jongen op klompen, duwend tegen een slee (?) 1788 - 1835

François Joseph Pfeiffer sketched this drawing of a boy with clogs pushing a cart, sometime before 1835. Notice the wooden shoes, or clogs, a common sight in the Low Countries, practical for the damp landscapes. Consider the clog— humble footwear, yet it echoes through art history, a distant cousin to the sandals of classical antiquity. We find peasants in clogs tilling fields in Bruegel's landscapes, and Van Gogh immortalizes them as symbols of rural life. But the clog is more than just footwear; it's a symbol of rootedness, of connection to the earth, and a life of labor. The simple clog can be seen through a psychoanalytic lens as representing a deep connection to the earth and a primal, unadorned state of being. Like other enduring symbols, the image of the clog evokes a sense of nostalgia. The clog’s journey isn't linear but cyclical. It resurfaces in modern art and fashion, transformed, yet still echoing its humble origins.