Signed (left, on stone): ·J·chardin
The idle play of children was a favorite theme of Chardin who was a great naturalist among painters. In this canvas of about 1734 he drew inspiration from the seventeenth-century Dutch genre tradition, for both the format and the subject. While it is not certain that he intended the picture to carry a message, soap bubbles were then understood to allude to the transience of life. Other later versions of this picture belong to the Los Angeles County Museum and to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Versions and Date:
It is generally agreed that there were four autograph versions of "Soap Bubbles"; three survive—two horizontal versions at the MMA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and an upright version at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The first version is presumably the one now lost, as technical analysis [see Ref. Conisbee 1991] has shown that none of the surviving pictures contain any significant pentimenti. It seems that it was this first, lost work that was exhibited at the 1739 Salon and engraved by Pierre Filloeul that year. The print is after an upright version which differs significantly from the Washington picture.
According to Mariette, Chardin's first figure painting represented a boy blowing bubbles. This would suggest a date of 1733–34 for the composition. The design and handling of the paint in all three extant versions are consistent with this date, which is confirmed by the appearance of the same young man in the "Lady Sealing a Letter" in Berlin, signed and dated 1733. The three extant versions were probably executed within a short period; the thick brushwork of the MMA picture suggests it is the earliest of the surviving works. Chardin apparently waited six years before exhibiting the first version at the Salon, a practice that was not unusual for him.
Two or three copies after Chardin's "Soap Bubbles" are known: "an old, retouched copy" [see Ref. Rosenberg 1979] in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas; "a good copy . . . faithful to Filloeul's engraving," [see Ref. Rosenberg 1983] now in a private collection in Paris; and possibly a third copy which appeared on the French art market in 1981 (Rosenberg, "Chardin, new thoughts," Lawrence, Kansas, 1983).
Pendants:
"Knucklebones," vertical in format and now in the Baltimore Museum of Art, was also engraved by Filloeul in 1739 and, with "Soap Bubbles," was presented as a pair of upright prints in an advertisement in the "Mercure" in 1739. The two subjects as uprights also appeared as pendants at the Boscy (1781) and Gruel (1811) sales. The MMA's "Soap Bubbles" was paired with two different versions of the "House of Cards," one at the Trouard Sale (1779), which is now lost, and another at the Jacques Doucet sale (1912), now in the Oskar Reinhart collection, Winterthur, which is a later copy. "The School Mistress" and "Soap Bubbles" appeared as pendants in four eighteenth-century sales. M. Dulac, the buyer of the Trouard pendants, appears to have paired the Metropolitan's "Soap Bubbles" with "The School Mistress," which sold as a pair in his sale in 1801 to an unknown buyer. Wildenstein [see Ref. 1969] associates "The School Mistress" in the National Gallery, London, with the Dulac pendant.
Louis-François Trouard, Paris (until 1779; M*** [his] sale, Paris, February 22, 1779, no. 44, "Deux tableaux pendans; ils représentent chacun un jeune garçon vu à mi-corps; l'un s'amuse à faire des boules de savon, & l'autre un château de cartes. Largeur 24 pouces, hauteur 23 pouces. Sur toile." for Fr 95 to Dulac); ?Antoine Charles Dulac, Paris (1779–1801; his sale, Paillet and Delaroche, Paris, April 6, 1801, no. 19, as "Deux Tableaux d'un vrai par la beauté du coloris et leur grande vérité; l'un représente un écolier qui fait des bules de savon; l'autre, une jeune fille qui fait lire enfant."); Jacques Doucet, Paris (by 1899–1912; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 6, 1912, no. 136, as "Les Bouteilles de savon," for Fr 300,500 [with no. 135, "Le Faiseur de châteaux de cartes," for Fr 190,000]); David David-Weill, Paris (1912–at least 1933; cat., 1926, I, pp. 25–26, ill.); Fritz Mannheimer, Amsterdam (until d. 1939); his widow, Jane Mannheimer, Amsterdam, and later New York (1939–49; held in Paris for Mrs. Mannheimer at Chenue; seized by the Nazis and "bought" May 12, 1944 through Posse and Mühlmann for Fr 800,000 for the Führer Museum, Linz; held at Alt Aussee [1387] and at Munich collecting point [1588]; returned to France, January 30, 1946, by the Service Français de la Récupération and restituted following agreement with SNK [Netherlands Art Property Foundation] in or after 1948; sold to Wildenstein); [Wildenstein, New York, 1949; sold to MMA]
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Chefs d'oeuvres des collections françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de Récupération artistique," June–August 1946, no. 10.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting," November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951, no. 47.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 130.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 68).
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 51.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 51.
Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Chardin: 1699–1779," January 29–April 30, 1979, no. 61.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Chardin: 1699–1779," May 30–August 12, 1979, no. 61.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Chardin: 1699–1779," September 18–November 19, 1979, no. 61.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century," October 5–December 31, 1983, no. 47.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Masterpiece in Focus: Soap Bubbles by Jean-Siméon Chardin," October 18, 1990–January 20, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpiece in Focus: Soap Bubbles by Jean-Siméon Chardin," February 19–June 6, 1991.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Soap Bubbles of Jean-Siméon Chardin," June 30–September 2, 1991.
Athens. National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. "From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," December 13, 1992–April 11, 1993, no. 30.
Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Chardin," September 7–November 22, 1999, no. 42.
Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf. "Chardin," December 5, 1999–February 20, 2000, no. 42.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Chardin," March 9–May 28, 2000, no. 42.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chardin," June 19–September 3, 2000, no. 42.
Lady [Emilia Francis Strong] Dilke. French Painters of the XVIIIth Century. London, 1899, pp. 114–15, notes that according to Mariette, probably writing in 1748 [1749 according to Ref. Rosenberg 1979, p. 206], Chardin's first genre subject was the head of a "Youth blowing soap-bubbles,"; notes that a very beautiful original of this subject is in the collection of Jacques Doucet, and that the Goncourt brothers were familiar with a version with M. Laperlier.
Lady [Emilia Francis Strong] Dilke. "Chardin et ses oeuvres à Potsdam et à Stockholm (premiér article)." Gazette des beaux-arts 22 (1899), pp. 181–82, ill. opp. p. 180 (engraving of our version by Henri Lefort).
Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. definitive ed. Paris, 1906, vol. 1, p. 157, confuse the version in the Trouart sale [ours] with the one in the Laperlier sale.
Armand Dayot and Jean Guiffrey. J.-B Siméon Chardin avec un catalogue complet de l'oeuvre du maître. Paris, 1907, pp. 44, 46, 75, 90, no. 113, and no. 122, ill., identifies this picture, in the collection of Jacques Doucet, as the work exhibited at the 1739 Salon, but claims that the Trouard picture, which he describes as a repetition with slight variations, is with M. David Weill; states that this picture was engraved by Filloeul and Lefort.
Armand Dayot and Léandre Vaillat. L'oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, [1908], p. iv, catalogue a version belonging to Mme Simpson and note that Doucet owns a repetition "en hauteur".
Herbert E. A. Furst. Chardin. London, 1911, p. 124.
[Émile Dacier]. "La collection Jacques Doucet." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 31 (1912), p. 337, ill. p. 323.
Collection Jacques Doucet, deuxième partie: Catalogue des sculptures & tableaux du XVIIIe siècle. Galerie Georges Petit, Paris. June 6, 1912, p. 37, no. 136, ill., identifies this picture and the "House of Cards," sold as no. 135, as coming from the Trouard sale and notes that their dimensions are very close; records "à titre de curiosité" the verses on the Filloeul engraving of this subject, in which the ephemeral nature of soap bubbles is compared to the variability of a woman's love.
Gabriel Henriot. "Peintures." Collection David Weill. 1, Paris, 1926, pp. 25–27, ill., comments on the difficulty of determining which of the variants was exhibited at the Salon of 1739 and believes the present picture was the one that appeared in the 1779 Trouard sale.
Paul Jamot. "French Painting—I." Burlington Magazine 59 (December 1931), ill. p. 309.
Georges Wildenstein. Chardin. Paris, 1933, pp. 167–68, no. 135, fig. 20, catalogues six variants of the "Bouteilles de Savon," and considers our picture to be the pendant to the House of Cards (no. 144, Oskar Reinhart collection, Winterthur) formerly in the Doucet collection.
"Tableaux, tapisseries, et sculptures." Répertoire des biens spoliés en France durant la guerre 1939–1945. 2, [Berlin], [1947], p. 165, no. 3687, as in the possession of the Mannheimer heirs.
"Chardin and Steiglitz Collection Go to Met." Art Digest 23 (July 1, 1949), p. 11, ill.
Francis Jourdain. Chardin, 1699–1779. Paris, 1949, fig. 30.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Boy Blowing Bubbles by Chardin." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 8 (April 1950), pp. 221–27, ill. p. 222 and on cover (color detail), reproduces Filloeul's engraving after a "lost version of the picture," exhibited at the Salon of 1739; mentions other versions of the subject in the National Gallery, Washington, and the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City; discusses the "philosophical meaning" of representations of children's games in the 18th century and sees the theme of blowing bubbles, following the inscription on the engraving, as an "eternal warning to the young about the fickleness of women".
Fritz Neugass. "Chardin: 'Der Junge mit der Seifenblase' (Ausschnitt)." Weltkunst 21 (March 15, 1951), p. 2, ill. (cover).
Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 231, no. 130, colorpl. 130.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), pp. 5, 39, ill.
Charles Sterling. "XV–XVIII Centuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 126–27, ill.
A. Hyatt Mayor. "The Gifts that Made the Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (November 1957), p. 86, calls it "Boy Blowing Bubbles".
Colin Eisler. "A Chardin in the Grand Manner." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 18 (February 1960), p. 207, ill. p. 206.
Georges Wildenstein. Chardin. revised and enlarged ed. Greenwich, Conn., 1969, pp. 158, 190, no. 75, fig. 35, suggests identifying this painting with "L'Enfant qui fait des bulles de savon," in the collection of Mme de Verrue in 1737; calls it a companion to the Winterthur picture (no. 209); dates the MMA, Washington, and Kansas City pictures "c. 1731–33".
David Carritt. Letter to John Walsh. September 9, 1974, observes that there is no evidence that this picture was in the Trouard collection and states that its supposed pendant there (The Card Castle, Winterthur) is a workshop replica of a picture owned until 1939 by descendants of the the 2nd Earl Harcourt at Nuneham, near Oxford; notes that if this replica was indeed sold as a pendant to the Museum's authentic picture, they were coupled only for convenience; suggests that the "tarted up daub" of the Boy Blowing Bubbles in Kansas City might be the picture from the Trouard collection.
George Mauner. Manet, Peintre-Philosophe: A Study of the Painter's Themes. University Park, Pa., 1975, pp. 134–35, fig. 78, describes Chardin's handling of this subject as "free of overt philosophical references".
Ronald Paulson. Emblem and Expression: Meaning in English Art of the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass., 1975, p. 106, ill.
Pierre Rosenberg. Chardin: 1699–1779. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1979, pp. 76–77, 205–6, 208–10, no. 61, ill., dates our picture 1735, later than the version in Washington; calls it probably the picture in the Trouard sale, but rejects identification of it as pendant to the "House of Cards" in the Reinhart collection, Winterthur; concludes that a vertical version of this subject, not necessarily the example in Washington, was the picture Mariette describes in 1749 as Chardin's first genre painting; reports that a recent technical study of the Washington picture by Willliam Leisher reveals that it has been enlarged on the sides, particularly on the right; mentions for the first time the Los Angeles version, then on the art market in New York; notes that although "everyone agrees that the soap bubble is a symbol of the fragility of human life" it may not be necessary to view these pictures as an allusion to feminine inconstancy and passing love [see Ref. Rousseau 1950 and others]; remarks that Chardin undertakes for the first time here the theme of early adolesence; omits the Kansas City picture from his discussion.
Albert Boime. Thomas Couture and the Eclectic Vision. New Haven, 1980, pp. 337–38, ill.
Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 361, 367, fig. 665 (color).
Norman Bryson. Word and Image: French Painting of the Ancien Régime. Cambridge, 1981, pp. 112–14, ill., discusses the subtlety of expression in Chardin's genre subjects, noting that although many of the motifs—the spinning top, the blowing of soap bubbles, the house of cards—are part of emblematic tradition, their meaning in his paintings is always understated, or ambiguous.
Jean-Luc Bordeaux in The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1983, p. 15.
Pierre Rosenberg. L'opera completa di Chardin. Milan, 1983, pp. 91–92, no. 97, ill. p. 91 and colorpl. 17, publishes the three autograph versions and a copy of the first version, presumed lost.
Eric M. Zafran. The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1983, pp. 102, 113–14, no. 47, ill. (color).
Joseph Baillio. "French Rococo Painting: A Notable Exhibition in Atlanta." Apollo 119 (January 1984), p. 17.
Philip Conisbee in Masterpiece in Focus: Soap Bubbles by Jean-Siméon Chardin. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1990, pp. 5–22, figs. 2, 27 (color), publishes the Soap Bubbles recently acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; observes that none of the three autograph versions has pentimenti and concludes that they are all based on the first version, now lost, which was shown at the Salon of 1739 and engraved by Filleul; judging from the rich impasto and brushwork of the MMA painting, suggests that it follows Chardin's first version most directly—the smoother, relatively schematic execution of the Los Angeles and Washington pictures betray less effort and probably came afterward; believes all of them were executed within a matter of months from the time of Chardin's original; observes that in ways, "variously iconographic and formal, Chardin rethinks the traditional northern genre subject [blowing bubbles] and invests the everyday with a hint of darker, more serious truths"; points out that the explanatory verses—often moralizing or mildly amorous in tone—that appeared at the bottom of 18th-century engravings were not necessarily endorsed by the original painter, and concludes that "it is unlikely that Chardin was thinking of the fickleness of a woman's heart when he created this moving image"; states that x-radiographs of the MMA version reveal "that it may have been cut substantially along the top and bottom" and believes it was also trimmed about one inch on the right, "leaving little space for the watching child's fingers to cling to the ledge".
Joseph Fronek in Masterpiece in Focus: Soap Bubbles by Jean-Siméon Chardin. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1990, pp. 23–25, discusses the materials and technique of the Los Angeles version.
Philip Conisbee in The Ahmanson Gifts: European Masterpieces in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1991, pp. 60–61, fig. 13a.
René Démoris. Chardin, la chair et l'objet. Paris, 1991, pp. 70, 84–87, 99–101, 153, fig. 11.
Michael Kimmelman. "Sharp Focus on an Unwavering Gaze." New York Times (March 17, 1991), p. H 35.
Marcia Kupfer. Soap Bubbles of Jean-Siméon Chardin. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991, unpaginated brochure, figs. 1 (color), 9 (x-ray).
Deborah Krohn et al. in From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. Athens, 1992, pp. 16, 308, no. 30, ill. (color) [catalogue section unpaginated].
Marianne Roland Michel. Chardin. New York, 1996, pp. 66, 193, 233 nn. 14–15.
Frédéric Ogée. "Chardin's Time: Reflections on the Tercentenary Exhibition and Twenty Years of Scholarship." Eighteenth-Century Studies 33 (Spring 2000), p. 435.
Pierre Rosenberg. Chardin. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 2000, pp. 174, 190, 208–10, no. 42, ill. (color), agrees with Ref. Conisbee 1990 that the three extant versions should be dated 1734, and that the version engraved by Pierre Filloeul in 1739 and exhibited in the Salon of that year has been lost; believes the "Woman Sealing a Letter" (Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, dated 1733) precedes Chardin's paintings of Soap Bubbles and is his first genre painting, noting that the young man who is the model for the older boy in these variants appears earlier as the servant in the Berlin picture.
James D. Herbert. "A Picture of Chardin's Making." Eighteenth-Century Studies 34 (Winter 2001), pp. 252–74, discusses the issue of "meaning" in Chardin's art, in particular in his paintings of Soap Bubbles, using the Los Angeles version as his prototype.
Philip Conisbee in The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting. Exh. cat.New Haven, 2003, p. 184.
Joseph Baillio et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, [2005], pp. 54, 72, no. 30, ill., date it about 1731.
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