Still-Life with a Watermelon and Pomegranates

Still-Life with a Watermelon and Pomegranates is a captivating drawing created by Paul Cézanne between 1900 and 1906, representing the analytical culmination of his late career studies. Executed in layered watercolor over a graphite outline on laid paper, this piece demonstrates Cézanne’s mastery of a medium often relegated to preparatory sketches. The classification as a drawing emphasizes the artist’s deliberate reliance on line and carefully controlled washes, where the initial structure anchors the shifting planes of color.

The composition centers on the domestic arrangement of a partially sliced watermelon and several richly pigmented pomegranates scattered across a tabletop. Cézanne employs thin, repetitive parallel strokes of watercolor to build volume and delineate forms, often leaving sections of the underlying paper exposed. This technique, characteristic of his post-Impressionist approach, allows the light of the paper to become an active component of the overall color and modeling, moving the still life toward greater abstraction. This analytical method of rendering volume was central to Cézanne’s lifelong challenge: to stabilize ephemeral objects like fruit within a defined, enduring space.

This significant work is an essential example of the maturity of Cézanne’s practice in the early 20th century. Reflecting his intense observation of common objects, this piece currently resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a culturally important masterwork, reproductions and high-quality prints of this watercolor are often made available through various public domain art collections for study and appreciation worldwide.