Man Polishing a Boot

1882 · Drawing

May one see it?

Not receiving at present

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: 5 hours ago
In this state since: Aug 19, 2026
Source: The museum's own collection data

On the map Museum page

Particulars

Accession number: 1991.217.68

What it shows

Occupation Male Shoeshiner

In the catalog

French Post-Impressionist

Sources

National Gallery of Art: the museum's own open data · fetched 4 days ago
Image: National Gallery of Art — Museum open access

Meanwhile, in the life of Vincent van Gogh

The whole life

August 1879 – October 1880 · Workplace
Maison Van Gogh
August 1880
Decides to take up art in earnest
Back in Cuesmes in the Borinage, lodging with a miner, Van Gogh began, at Theo's suggestion, to draw the people and scenes around him in earnest. Later that year he went to Brussels to study with Willem Roelofs, who persuaded him to enrol at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts.
late 1881
Lessons with Anton Mauve
His second cousin Anton Mauve, the successful artist Van Gogh longed to be, took him on as a student and introduced him to watercolour. Within weeks they fell out, possibly over drawing from plaster casts.
August 1881
Proposes to his cousin Kee: “No, nay, never”
His recently widowed cousin Cornelia “Kee” Vos-Stricker, seven years his senior, came to stay in Etten with her eight-year-old son. To everyone's surprise Van Gogh declared his love and proposed; she refused: “No, nay, never.”
1882
His first paintings in oil
Soon after three weeks in hospital in June 1882, Van Gogh painted in oils for the first time, with paints bought on money borrowed from Theo, and was surprised at how good the results were. In August Theo gave him money for materials to work en plein air, and Vincent wrote that he could now “go on painting with new vigour”.
late January 1882
Life with Sien Hoornik
Van Gogh met Clasina Maria “Sien” Hoornik, a pregnant prostitute with a five-year-old daughter, and set up home with her; on learning of it, Mauve stopped answering his letters. His father pressed him to abandon Sien, and in 1883 Vincent left her and the children.