Of the twenty or so watercolor still lifes Cézanne produced during his final years, this work is among the most fully realized. With fluid strokes of saturated color, the artist calls attention to his skills of both observation—his attention to the reflections among objects is rarely as apparent—and creation. The rounded objects clustered together, including a hulking watermelon, two pomegranates, a bulbous glass vase or carafe, and a sugar bowl conjured from the reserved white of the paper, have both a volumetric quality and an intangibility. Marks in the corners left by thumbtacks, especially evident at upper right, are a reminder of the process of making this luminous and intensely colored sheet.
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Dimensions:sheet: 12 3/8 x 19 3/16 in. (31.4 x 48.8 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 2001, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002
Accession Number:2001.202.1
Nature morte avec pastèque et grenades
Stillleben mit Granatäpfeln
Nature morte aux melons et grenades
The Watermelon
Le Melon
Still-Life: Sugar-Bowl and Pomegranates
Marking: On verso stamped in black ink, upper left: TL in a double circle; circular sticker printed in green ink, lower right: 'K.S.ZOLLANT FUR POSTGUTER DRESDEN'
Estate of Paul Cézanne (French); [ Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris (French)(after 1907–at least 1916)]; Percy Moore Turner, London (according to Venturi); Galerie Matthiesen (German), Berlin; Christian Tetzen-Lund (Danish), Copenhagen(in 1921; his sale, V. Winkel & Magnussen, Copenhagen, May 18–19, 1925, no. 73); Otto Wacker (German), Berlin (until 1927); Possibly Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris (French)(between Wacker and Beatty?); Mrs. Alfred Chester Beatty (British), London (by 1936–1955; sold in March 1955 to Rosenberg); Paul Rosenberg (American), New York (1955, stock 5609; sold on May 6, 1955 to Annenberg); Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg (American)(jointly with MMA 2001–his d. 2002; his bequest)
Montross Gallery, New York. "Cézanne," January 1, 1916–January 31, 1916.
Lefevre Gallery. "Cézanne (1839-1906)," June 1937.
Wildenstein & Co., Ltd., London. "Homage to Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)," July 1939.
London. Tate Gallery. "Paul Cézanne: An Exhibition of Watercolours," March 1946–April 1946.
Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. "Paul Cézanne: An Exhibition of Watercolours," May 18, 1946–June 8, 1946.
Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield. "Paul Cézanne: An Exhibition of Watercolours," June 15, 1946–July 6, 1946.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Philadelphia Private Collectors," June 19, 1963–September 15, 1963.
Tate Gallery. "The Annenberg Collection," September 2, 1969–October 8, 1969.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," May 21–September 17, 1989.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," May 6–August 5, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," August 16–November 11, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," June 4–October 13, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Cézanne: Drawings and Watercolors from the Metropolitan Museum’s Collection," November 18, 2014–March 15, 2015.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Anniversary Highlights," October 8, 2020–January 18, 2021.
FWN 1973; Rewald W561; Venturi 1145
Cézanne. Montross Gallery, New York, 1916, cat. no. 8.
Willard Huntington Wright "Paul Cézanne." International Studio. 57, no. 228, February 1916, p. cxxx.
Julius Meier-Graefe Cézanne und seine Ahnen: Faksimiles nach Aquarellen, Feder- und anderen Zeichnungen von Tintoretto, Greco, Poussin, Corot, Delacroix, Cézanne. R. Piper & Co., Munich, 1921, pl. XVII, ill.
Georges Rivière Le Maître Paul Cézanne. Henry Floury, Paris, 1923, p. 221.
Cézanne: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen Bronzen von Edgar Degas. Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin, 1927, cat. no. 35.
Oluf Thomsen Christian Tetzen-Lunds Samling of moderne fransk Malerkunst. Tetzen-Lund, Copenhagen, 1934, pl. 21, cat. no. 6, ill.
Lionello Venturi Cézanne: Son Art, Son Œuvre. Éditions Paul Rosenberg, 2 vols., Paris, 1936, cat. no. 1145, p. 284 (vol. 1), pl. 328 (vol. 2), ill.
Cézanne. Alex Reid & Lefevre, London, 1937, cat. no. 32.
Wildenstein & Co., Inc. Homage to Paul Cézanne (1939–1906). London, 1939, cat. no. 66.
Alfred Neumeyer Cézanne's Drawings. Thomas Yoseloff, New York and London, 1958, cat. no. 55, ill.
M. Roy Fisher, Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, Tate Gallery The Annenberg Collection. Tate Gallery, London, 1969, cat. no. 7, ill.
John Rewald Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1983, cat. no. 561, pp. 228-9, ill.
Hajo Düchting, Ingo F. Walther Paul Cézanne 1839–1906: Natur wird Kunst. Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, Cologne, 1989, p. 177, ill.
Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, Mark Rosenthal Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1989, pp. 82-83, 179-180, ill.
Colin B. Bailey, Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, Mark Rosenthal, Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, Philadelphia Museum of Art Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2nd rev. ed. [1st ed., 1989]. Philadelphia, 1991, pp. 85-86, 185-6, ill.
Jérôme Coignard "Le Salon de peinture de Mr. et Mrs. Annenberg." Beaux-Arts. no. 92, Paris, July–August 1991, p. 64, ill.
Elizabeth E. Barker "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2000-2001." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 59, no. 2, Autumn 2001, p. 56, ill.
Matthew Simms Cézanne's Watercolors: Between Drawing and Painting. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2008, pl. 98, pp. 138, 140, ill.
Joseph J. Rishel, Susan Alyson Stein, Asher Miller, Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection - New Edition. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 4th rev. ed. [1st ed., 1989]. New York, 2009, cat. no. 31, pp. 162-4, ill.
Gérard Landrot Cézanne: Aquarelles. Editions Langlaude, Paris, 2010, pp. 66-7, ill.
Richard Shone "Acquisitions (2000–10) of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York." The Burlington Magazine. 152, no. 1293, December 2010, fig. no. XIII, p. 843, ill.
Carol Armstrong Cézanne's Gravity. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2018, fig. no. 61, pp. 129-131, ill.
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