Compote c. 1941

Joseph Mitry made this watercolor and graphite drawing of a compote sometime between 1875 and 1995. I love how he’s used translucent washes of color to capture the look of the glass – it’s as if the compote is a ghost of itself. I can imagine Mitry sitting with the compote in front of him, scrutinizing it, trying to capture not just its shape but also the way light moves through it. Maybe he’s thinking about the way we see things, how light and shadow play tricks on our eyes. Look closely at the way he’s rendered the curves and edges, the subtle shifts in tone that suggest depth and volume. You get the sense that he isn't just copying what he sees but trying to understand it on a deeper level. It reminds me of Cezanne's still lifes, not so much in style but in its quiet intensity, and in the way he's trying to break down the image to its most basic forms. It’s like he’s saying, "Here's a compote, but it's also about seeing, drawing, and trying to capture something ephemeral."