Pablo Picasso’s Nature Morte à la Pastèque (Still Life with Watermelon), 1962, a color linocut, signed and numbered by the artist. It belongs to Picasso’s celebrated series of linocuts from the late 1950s and early 1960s, created in collaboration with master printer Hidalgo Arnéra in Vallauris, where he transformed linocut from a craft medium into one of his most innovative artistic languages.

The composition presents a vibrant still life under an electric light: a large slice of watermelon sits alongside a cluster of fruit on a checked tablecloth, illuminated by a hanging lamp. At the center, the spiraling yellow light bulb radiates jagged lines of energy, infusing the entire scene with a sense of dynamism.

The forms are flattened and bold, simplified into graphic silhouettes of color rather than modeled volume. The vivid pink and green of the watermelon contrasts sharply with the dark background, while the bright yellows, blues, and browns of the table and light fixture create a strong rhythm of geometric and organic elements. Picasso frames the scene within layered rectangles of yellow and brown, heightening the sense of focus and theatricality, almost as if the still life were staged on a stage or inside a painting-within-a-painting.

This work exemplifies Picasso’s mastery of the reduction linocut method, where all colors are printed from a single linoleum block, cut down successively for each layer. Each stage destroys the previous, demanding both foresight and precision.

Here, Picasso uses bold, unmodulated colors and sharp contrasts to emphasize the decorative and graphic power of the linocut. The texture of the carved linoleum is visible in the lamp’s shading and background, giving the image a tactile immediacy. Printed on high-quality wove paper, the saturated colors and crisp lines highlight Picasso’s technical inventiveness in a medium previously undervalued in fine art.

Nature Morte à la Pastèque demonstrates Picasso’s ability to reimagine the still life tradition for the modern era. Where classical still lifes emphasized realism, shadow, and depth, Picasso instead employs flatness, bold color, and abstraction to convey energy and vitality.

The choice of watermelon, with its bright, juicy flesh, symbolizes life, abundance, and sensual pleasure, while the surrounding fruit and radiating lamp imbue the scene with humor and theatrical vibrancy. The work reflects Picasso’s lifelong fascination with everyday objects, elevating them into universal symbols through radical reinvention.

At the same time, the electric light — rendered almost like a blazing sun — connects tradition with modernity, situating the still life in the contemporary world.

Nature Morte à la Pastèque (1962) is a color linocut by Pablo Picasso, signed and numbered. Depicting a watermelon slice and fruit under an electric lamp, the work employs bold, flattened shapes and vibrant colors to transform a simple still life into a dynamic, theatrical image. A landmark of Picasso’s collaboration with printer Hidalgo Arnéra, it exemplifies his mastery of the reduction linocut technique and his ability to reinvent traditional subjects with modernist energy and graphic brilliance.