Soap Bubbles

Soap Bubbles

Soap Bubbles
Artist:Thomas Couture (French, Senlis 1815–1879 Villiers-le-Bel)
Date:ca. 1859
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:51 1/2 x 38 5/8 in. (130.8 x 98.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887
Accession Number:87.15.22

A schoolboy, identifiable by the books on the desk, contemplates soap bubbles, traditional symbols of the transience of life. A wilting laurel wreath on the wall behind him suggests the fleeting nature of praise and honors. The word "immortalité," inscribed on the paper inserted in the mirror, reinforces the painting’s allegorical content.
Couture was an influential teacher known for his opposition to strict academic instruction. Among his pupils was Manet, who in 1867 painted his own, more naturalistic, version of this subject (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon).

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