Shoe and Leg

Medium: Offset lithograph with hand-coloring in watercolor on wove paper
Date: circa 1955
Sheet: 25×19 inches (63.5 x 48.3 cm)
Edition: Unknown
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann IV.85

Created at approximately the same time as the A La Recherche du Shoe Perdu portfolio. Although some of these portfolios include this work, Warhol’s original intention is unknown. The lettering was done by Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola.

Before Marilyn and Moonwalk, there was Andy the illustrator. Warhol’s career began as a commercial illustrator on New York’s Madison Avenue in 1949, during the massive post-war economic boom. His arrival additionally coincided with an extensive change in the motivations and strategies behind advertising, utilizing applied psychology to influence American consumers to purchase products. This stint as an ad man would further his Pop interest in cultural commercialization and start his artistic career; thus began the first chapter of Warhol’s oeuvre, dominated by charming and light-handed ink drawings.

As a master of line and contour, Warhol’s consistent and unique drawings and designs piqued the interest of his clients, earning him commissions and collaborations with some of the biggest brands of the day: Tiffany & Co., Columbia Records, and Vogue, to name a few. Though stylistically different from the Pop art that would rocket him to international stardom, these early drawings offer a glimpse at an artist well on his way to establishing an art movement that would change the way the world conceived of contemporary art and its connection to pop culture, morphing from his early successes in the commercial art scene.

The simple yet sophisticated line drawings contain a child-like whimsy – though that’s not to say Warhol didn’t take his work seriously. As reflected in his early drawings, he took to heart a piece of advice from one of his art teachers who told the young artist to paint for himself, not what others wanted to see. This wisdom would validate Warhol’s desire to draw his favorite things: cherubs, shoes, cats, and often young men. Across these drawings and hand-colored prints, we see Warhol as a compulsive creator, documenting life and fantasy with the stark clarity of ink on paper.

 

 

 

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Auction Results

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Phillips New-York: 24 October 2024
Estimated: USD 6,000 – 9,000
USD 7,620

Sotheby’s New-York: 23 April 2021
Estimated: USD 4,000 – 6,000
USD 15,120

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Shoe and Leg (see Feldman & Schellmann IV.85), circa 1955
Offset lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper
Annotated ‘PM16.0314’ in pencil on the verso
The lettering by Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola

Sotheby’s New-York: 19 March 2021
Estimated: USD 4,000 – 6,000
USD 11,340

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
Shoe and Leg (see Feldman & Schellmann IV.85), circa 1955
Offset lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper
Annotated ‘PM16.0652’ in pencil on the verso
The lettering by Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola

Christie’s New-York: 17 July 2018
Estimated: USD 6,000 – 8,000
USD 7,500

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Shoe and Leg (December Shoe) (Feldman & Schellmann IV.85), circa 1955
Offset lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper
From the edition of unknown size
With the ‘The Estate of Andy Warhol’ and ‘Authorized by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ ink stamps
Annotated ‘PM16.032’ in pencil on the reverse