Soap Bubbles

Neatline

Charles Amedee, Soap Bubbles, 1764, oil on canvas

The intricate piece created by Charles Amedee in 1764, displays the interaction of elite children. As displayed from the oil painting, children are captivated in their play of a soap bubble. This play shows a romantizism of the children's games. The subject of soap bubble blowing became very popularized in the seventeeth century being depicted in art, literature and in science. This popular idea respresents how fragile life can be. As associated with children's play in this piece, the importance of childhood and its fragile state become evident. This scene is exibited through a frame-like window, forcing viewers to look directly at the subject of the children and the soap bubble. The frame-like window shows this scene to be more of a forced narrative than a reality making this piece to be seen as just a spectacle, or a fantasy.

Fashion of Rococo is also resembled through this piece, as seen by the use of pastel colors in the girl's dress. During Rococo, pastels were not just used in paintings but in clothing too. Women of this time were more commonly seen in lighter colors, especially the elites and high classes. Each outfit painted on the subjects is very reflective of the Rococo style and help to resemble what type of people these children could have been.