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Boys Blowing Bubbles

Boys Blowing Bubbles

1640s

Michaelina Wautier

Flemish, 1604 - 1689

A boy blows bubbles with a straw as his friend tries to catch one in his hat. The bubble-a perfect orb which can pop at any moment-is a familiar symbol of the fragility and brevity of life. To enforce the point, the artist includes a snuffed-out candle and an hourglass in the background. The open book and half-hidden musical instrument may refer to the idea that art outlasts life, which of course is part of the point of the painting itself.
Oil on canvas
35 5/8 x 47 3/4 in. (90.5 x 121.3 cm)
Gift of Mr. Floyd Naramore
58.140
Provenance: Miss S. Morant and Miss V. E. Morant, England; [David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, by 1958]; purchased by Seattle Art Museum (funds from Floyd A. Naramore), 1958
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Burlington Gallery, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, Flemish Exhibition 1953-1954, cat. no. 468.

Walla Walla, Washington, Whitman College, The Olin Humanities Building Dedication Show, 1972. Cat. no. 49 (exh. cat. p. 16).

Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, 5,000 Years Of Faces, Jan. 28 - July 30, 1983.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum Permanent Collection Installation, 1995 - 1998.

Raleigh, North Carolina, North Carolina Museum of Art, Sinners and Saints, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and his Dutch and Flemish Followers in America, Sept. 29 - Dec. 13, 1998 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee Art Museum, Jan. 29 - Apr. 18, 1999; Dayton, Ohio, Dayton Art Institute, May 8 - July 18, 1999).

Antwerp, Belgium, Museem aan de Stroom, Michelina, June 1 - Sept 2, 2018.
Published ReferencesThe Art Quarterly vol. 21, no. 4 (Winter 1958): reproduced on cover (detail, attributed to Jakob van Oost).

Van der Stighelen, Katlijne. Michaelina Wautier: Glorifying a Forgotten Talent 1604 - 1689. Exh. Cat. Antwerp: Museum aan de Stroom, 2018; p. 221, 239, 245, reproduced cat. 19 [not in exhibition].

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