Pomona Receives the Harvest of Fruit

Pomona Receives the Harvest of Fruit, painted by Cornelis van Haarlem in 1626, was a mythological work depicting Pomona receiving a harvest of fruit. Its representation of nudity within a mythological context contributed to its thematic significance. The painting is part of the Rijksmuseum's collection and was formerly held in the Hermann Göring Collection and the Munich Central Collecting Point.

The work's legacy is tied to its inclusion in discussions of Northern Low Countries mythological painting and its presence in major institutional collections.

Cornelis van Haarlem’s Pomona Receives the Harvest of Fruit is an oil‑on‑canvas work dated to 1626. Executed during the Dutch Golden Age, the painting belongs to the mythological genre and is presently part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection in Amsterdam.

The composition portrays the Roman goddess Pomona amid a verdant forest, surrounded by nude figures who present baskets and vases brimming with pears, apples and grapes. Pomona kneels on a pink cloth while attendants pass the harvest, suggesting a celebration of abundance and the goddess’s role as protector of fruit trees.

As a leading Northern Mannerist, van Haarlem contributed to the evolution of Dutch portraiture and influenced later artists such as Frans Hals. This mythological scene illustrates his ability to blend classical subject matter with the emerging naturalism that characterized the early seventeenth‑century Dutch artistic milieu.