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Soap Bubbles
Jean-Siméon Chardin · Rococo & Neoclassicism
- Artist
- Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699–1779)
- Date
- c. 1733–1734
- Dimensions
- 61 x 63.2 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
Soap Bubbles shows a young man leaning out of a stone window, carefully blowing a large soap bubble through a straw, while a small child peers over the sill to watch it grow.
A closer look
Chardin captures a moment of total concentration: the young man's cheeks are puffed, his eyes fixed on the fragile, glistening sphere that reflects the window. The scene is quiet and ordinary, painted in soft, earthy tones with a grainy texture. For viewers of the time, soap bubbles were a familiar symbol of the brevity and fragility of human life, and the picture invites reflection beneath its simple surface. Chardin painted at least three versions of the subject.
