Roses in a Bottle [recto]

Paul Cézanne

Watercolor over graphite on wove paper

National Gallery of Art

This intimate vertical still life depicts a bouquet of at least six red and pink-edged white roses arranged in a blue bottle, rendered in watercolor over graphite on wove paper. The blooms are touched with golden yellow, emerald green, and sky blue, while the background is resolved through loose, overlapping diagonal bands of frosty green, mauve pink, smoky purple, and muted blue — a characteristically Cézannian dissolution of form into structured color planes. Cézanne, born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839 and a foundational figure of Post-Impressionism, rarely depicted cut flowers, making this floral watercolor a relatively uncommon subject within his oeuvre. The work exemplifies his mature watercolor practice, in which transparent washes and the bare paper itself are wielded as active compositional elements.