In Paris, Van Gogh had painted several pictures of workman's boots. In Saint-Rémy he painted this pair of leather clogs, the attributes of the peasant life with which he had once more begun to concern himself in these rural southern areas. The artist also knew still life's featuring clogs from work by the peasant painter Millet, for whom he had great admiration. To Millet, clogs symbolized the poetry of peasant life.