Van Roekens’s still life looks less arranged and more like a natural occurrence. Under a cool, direct light source, Roekens skillfully handles her surfaces. The transparent sea-green glass jar, the perfectly striped watermelon, and the adjacent gourds show the composition’s affinity for shades of green. The watermelon’s size, position, and palpable crispness make it the center of the still life show, begging to be sliced and eaten.
Van Roekens was born in Chateau-Thierry, France. Her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child, settling in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Van Roekens attended the Moore College of Art & Design (known at the time as the Philadelphia School of Design for Women), the Graphic Sketch Club, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). From 1923 to 1961, she taught painting and drawing at Moore alongside her husband, Arthur Meltzer. The critic Henry Pitz wrote that Van Roekens “rejoices in color and movement... She gravitates toward subjects that sparkle with pattern and bright hues: the circus, the theater, ballets, the summer life of Philadelphia’s parks, children, the Atlantic beaches. She rejoices in the sensuous feel of paint. She responds to the gay and alert aspects of life.”
