Roses in a Bottle 1900 - 1904

Paul Cézanne made this watercolor of roses in a bottle, and it's like he's figuring out how to see, right there on the page. The thing that gets me is how the paper peeks through. It's not just a background; it's part of the whole deal. He's using these watery blues and greens, but they don't quite fill in the shapes. Look at the way the light catches the bottle, how it's all just suggested with a few strokes. And the roses themselves? They're like little explosions of color. It reminds me of Morandi, the way he kept painting the same bottles over and over, trying to nail down what it really means to look. Cézanne wasn't trying to copy what he saw; he was trying to understand it. And that's what makes it so cool – it's not just a picture of roses, it's a record of someone thinking.