Artwork
Bubble-blowing Girl with a Vanitas Still Life
Bubble-blowing Girl with a Vanitas Still Life is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist Adriaen van der Werff. It is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The pairing of innocence with the memento mori intensifies the painting's reflective, contemplative purpose characteristic of the vanitas tradition.
Adriaen van der Werff's small copper painting unites two distinct pictorial traditions within a single composition. A young girl is shown blowing a bubble, an action drawn from the established allegorical motif of the soap bubble, which traditionally signifies the fragility and brevity of human life. Beside her appears a vanitas still-life arrangement featuring a skull, the central emblem of the vanitas genre, reminding the viewer of mortality and the futility of earthly pleasures.
By combining the carefree act of a child at play with the sobering presence of death's emblem, van der Werff creates a layered moral message: youth, beauty, and pleasure are transient, and life itself is as fleeting and insubstantial as a bubble. The pairing of innocence with the memento mori intensifies the painting's reflective, contemplative purpose characteristic of the vanitas tradition.
Technique & Style
The work is executed in oil paint on a copper support, a technique associated with Adriaen van der Werff's finely finished cabinet pictures. The painting takes the form of a small still life, measuring 15 cm in height by 11.5 cm in width, a scale typical of copper panels designed for close, jewel-like viewing.
The combination of a smooth copper ground with oil paint allowed van der Werff to render the polished surfaces of the vanitas elements and the delicate translucency of the soap bubble with high precision. The composition juxtaposes a girl blowing a bubble with a skull, a classic vanitas pairing in which the fragile bubble symbolizes the brevity of life.
History & Provenance
Painted in 1727 by Adriaen van der Werff, the work is executed in oil on copper and measures 15 × 11.5 cm. It passed through the hands of Pieter de Smeth and later Jan Six van Vromade before entering the Six Collection. The painting is now housed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, as part of the Six Collection. The available documentation does not include an explicit accession number, and no exhibition records are cited in the sources.
Overview
Adriaen van der Werff's 1727 painting, Bubble-blowing Girl with a Vanitas Still Life, is executed on copper. This work presents a young girl engaged in blowing bubbles, positioned beside a skull and books. The composition subtly merges an image of youthful playfulness with the profound symbolism of life's transience, characteristic of vanitas themes. It exemplifies the artist's refined approach to allegorical subjects.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Adriaen van der Werff (21 January 1659 – 12 November 1722) was a Dutch painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes.
Cupid Kissing Venus (Venus Kissed by Amor)
God Holds Adam and Eve Responsible
A Nymph Dancing to a Shepherd's Flute-Playing
The Holy Family
Virgin and Child with Saint John (chalk sketch)
Self-portrait with the Portrait of his Wife, Margaretha van Rees, and their Daughter Maria
Portrait of Johann Wilhelm Elector of Palatine (1658-1716)
Night scene with children
