Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin - Soap bubble

Title: Soap bubble (La bulle de savon)
Artist: Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin (1699-1779)
Date: 1733
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 61 × 63 cm

The “Soap bubble” depicts a young man blowing a soap bubble. This picture is Chardin’s first figural painting (using a model) and it was exhibited at the 1739 Paris Salon.

Painting soap bubbles requires great technical skill and allows for a play on colors and transparency. The magic that comes with soap bubbles appeals to all generations. It’s been speculated that Chardin was inspired by 17th-century Dutch paintings where soap bubbles served as allusions to the transience of life, such as Adriaen Hanneman’s “Two boys blowing bubbles”, c. 1630.