Juan de Zurbarán's Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket

When (still) life gives you lemons...

Lemons hold an important place in the history of still-life painting. Grown in abundance in Seville, they became an incredibly popular feature of Northern European paintings, particularly in 17th-century Holland, where their rarity made them a valued commodity.

On the wall near ‘Still Life with Lemons’ hangs ‘Still Life with Drinking-Horn' by Dutch artist Willem Kalf, painted about 1653. It features a single lemon, delicately half-peeled. In comparison, Zurbarán’s basket is heaped with the valuable fruit – three lemons even appear to have toppled from the basket!   

Could Juan have intended this to symbolise Seville’s glimmering wealth, undoubtedly the backdrop to his own life? Elsewhere we see hints about the city’s position on the world stage, such as the porcelain bowl.  

Made in China for export, the bowl reminds us of Seville’s status as a centre of global trade. It reappears in another painting attributed to Francisco de Zurbarán, suggesting the bowl lived in his studio.  

Religious devotion  

Aside from its commercial symbolism, the porcelain bowl and its accompanying features have also been viewed as religiously symbolic.   

The water and lily refer to the purity of the Virgin Mary, a motif also seen in Francisco de Zurbarán’s ‘A Cup of Water and a Rose’, which hangs nearby.   

The goldfinch is often associated with Christ’s Passion (his torture and crucifixion) and sacrifice. According to legend, the bird flew down towards Christ on the road to Calvary, the site of his crucifixion, and plucked a thorn from his brow. Its feathers were splashed with a drop of his blood, staining its face red.   

This symbolism would have been immediately obvious to devout Spanish viewers in the 17th century. Today, his father is most well-known for his religious art and though Juan is recorded as having created some religious works himself, none survive.  

Some art historians, like Dr Peter Cherry, suggest we do not necessarily have to see ‘Still Life with Lemons’ as religious, however. Instead, it may have been created as an exercise in pure painting and observation, in keeping with the tradition of the still-life genre.

Exploring Room 25   

Still-life paintings can be traced thousands of years back to antiquity. During the 16th century, the discovery of Roman mural paintings portraying fruit and flowers sparked a renewed interest in still life, and up to the modern day they have enjoyed popularity.   

In Room 25 of the National Gallery, seven still-life paintings join ‘Still Life with Lemons’, offering a cornucopia of painted delights, from lobsters to asparagus. Spanning 250 years, this room shows the intriguing development of the genre, and how different artists have put their own spin on the classic.  

The earliest is ‘A Cup of Water and a Rose’, painted by Juan’s father in 1630. In this small and intimate painting, we see the same symbolic imagery as in ‘Still Life with Lemons’. Here we are invited to appreciate the beauty of light reflecting on water and bouncing off polished surfaces, as the stark simplicity of the surrounding space provides no distractions. This evokes a similar feeling to Juan’s vibrant flowers and lemons as they emerge from their dark backdrop. 

In Spring 2026, we reunite several paintings by father and son in the UK’s first-ever exhibition devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán. Rare still lifes created by Juan will be on display alongside some of Francisco’s greatest paintings from all over the world.

Still life in the 19th century

In the 19th century, the humble still life gained a boost in popularity, due in part to the rediscovery of the works of 18th-century French artist Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699–1779).  

Many artists were inspired by Chardin, including famed French painter Claude Monet. In his ‘Still Life’, painted in about 1869, we see a wicker basket of pears alongside apples and bunches of grapes sprawled across a white tablecloth.   

Though taking inspiration from Chardin, this painting shows a remarkable fusion of the traditions of the genre with personal vision – Monet’s careful balance of colour, intricate staging of the fruit and loose brushstrokes bring a fresh perspective.

Painted at just 27 years old, Monet too was a young man honing his craft – his life and career ahead of him. While painting his vibrant 'Still Life with Lemons’, Juan de Zurbarán must have believed the same. Their paintings now hang side by side in the Gallery, an ode to young talent and the fleeting nature of life.