  It is this difficult attempt to describe phenomenologically “what equipment in truth is” (PLT 32/GA5 17)—that is, to convey the way we encounter something when we are not aware of it as an object at all but, instead, are completely immersed in our practical engagement with it—that motivates Heidegger not just to mention but genuinely to introduce Van Gogh’s painting, which Heidegger thus presents simply “as an example of a common sort of equipment—a pair of farmer’s shoes” (PLT 32/GA5 18). In Van Gogh’s most famous painting of  “A Pair of Shoes” (1886), Heidegger believes we can “discover what the equipmental being of equipment is in truth” (PLT 33/GA5 18). In other words, Heidegger thinks Van Gogh’s painting reveals what it is like genuinely to encounter a shoe in its use as a shoe. As he puts it: