Soap Bubbles
Jean Siméon Chardin·probably 1733/1734
Historical Context
Chardin's Soap Bubbles from 1733-34 depicts a young man blowing soap bubbles — one of the most ancient vanitas symbols, the ephemeral bubble representing life's brevity and earthly pleasure's transience. Chardin painted this subject multiple times in the early 1730s, his first major engagement with the domestic genre scenes that would define his mature career alongside his famous still lifes. The soap bubble's combination of material simplicity — soapy water, a pipe — with visual complexity — the iridescent globe, the fugitive colors — made it ideal for Chardin's approach to painting: finding in humble subjects the deepest resources of pictorial observation and meditative attention.
Technical Analysis
Chardin's technique achieves a remarkable balance between observed naturalism and pictorial refinement. The iridescent bubble is rendered with subtle, translucent tones, while the young man's absorbed expression is captured with warm, sympathetic modeling. The muted palette of browns and soft colors creates an intimate, contemplative atmosphere.
Provenance
Probably Adolphe Eugéne Gabriel Roehn [1780-1867], Paris, by 1845.[1] Laurent Laperlier [1805-1878], Paris and Mustapha, Algeria, by 1860;[2] (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11-13 April 1867, 1st day, no. 10); purchased by Biesta. (Gimpel and Wildenstein, New York and Paris); sold 1905 to John Woodruff Simpson [1850-1920], New York;[3] by inheritance to his widow, Katherine Seney Simpson [d. 1943], New York; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] See Pierre Rosenberg, _Chardin, 1699-1779_, Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris; Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cleveland, 1979: 205, for a discussion of the likely Roehn provenance. The painting is probably the one described as having been seen in the studio of "M. Roehn" in _L'Artiste_(5 August 1845): 72. [2] Laperlier lent the painting to an exhibition in Paris in 1860. He was a member of the military administration in Algeria after the French colonization of that country, and was an art patron and collector. [3] According to René Gimpel, _Diary of an Art Dealer_, trans. by John Rosenberg, New York, 1966: 300, discussing his father's sales for 1905. Dr. Diana Kostyrko, who completed her dissertation about René Gimpel for the Australian National University in 2007 and was given access by the Gimpel family to the original diaries, has kindly confirmed this diary passage and says that Gimpel was reading from an accounts book when he wrote the entry (e-mail to Anne Halpern, 14 April 2007, in NGA curatorial files). Armand Dayot and Léandre Vaillat, _L'Oeuvre de J. B. S. Chardin et de J. H. Fragonard_, Paris, 1907: 4, no. 12, list the painting as owned by Mrs. Simpson. Harry Brooks of Wildenstein & Co. gives differing information in a letter of 11 September 1978 to David Rust (in NGA curatorial files), which says their Paris office "found records to the effect that the picture was bought [by the Simpsons] in March, 1914."
