As he grew older, Cézanne found that he especially liked to paint the places around his hometown of Aix. He would go outside with his easel, paints, and canvas, returning to the same places over and over again. One of those places was an estate called the Château Noir, or black castle, right outside the town. This painting shows a stone cistern (tank for storing water) that was on the estate. The cistern is on the lower left. Three branches form a triangle above it.