Oil Painting, 'Children Blowing Bubbles', Italian School, 18th century

A group of children playing and blowing bubbles in landscape with a ruined building overgrown with greenery and two little dogs

Bequeathed by John Jones

Bequeathed by John Jones, 1882
John Jones (1800-1882) was first in business as a tailor and army clothier in London 1825, and opened a branch in Dublin 1840. Often visited Ireland, travelled to Europe and particularly France. He retired in 1850, but retained an interest in his firm. Lived quietly at 95 Piccadilly from 1865 to his death in January 1882. After the Marquess of Hertford and his son Sir Richard Wallace, Jones was the principal collector in Britain of French 18th century fine and decorative arts. Jones bequeathed an important collection of French 18th century furniture and porcelain to the V&A, and among the British watercolours and oil paintings he bequeathed to the V&A are subjects which reflect his interest in France.

See also South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks. The Jones Collection. With Portrait and Woodcuts. Published for the Committee of Council on Education by Chapman and Hall, Limited, 11, Henrietta Street. 1884.
Chapter I. Mr. John Jones. pp.1-7.
Chapter II. No.95, Piccadilly. pp.8-44. This gives a room-by-room guide to the contents of John Jones' house at No.95, Piccadilly.
Chapter VI. ..... Pictures,... and other things, p.138, "The pictures which are included in the Jones bequest are, with scarcely a single exception, valuable and good; and many of them excellent works of the artists. Mr. Jones was well pleased if he could collect enough pictures to ornament the walls of his rooms, and which would do no discredit to the extraordinary furniture and other things with which his house was filled."

Historical significance: Originally thought to be French, 570-1882 has subsequently been reattributed to the Italian School based on its poplar support -a wood most commonly used on the peninsula while oak was used in the North. The subject derives from the Dutch 17th century Genre and Vanitas traditions such as Caspar Netscher's Two Boys Blowing Bubbles ca. 1670 (London, National Gallery). Children blowing bubbles are often a symbol of the transience of human life according to the ancient motto 'homo bulla' (man is a bubble). The motto was reintroduced in the sixteenth century by the Dutch philosopher Erasmus in his “Adagia”, a collection of sayings published in 1572. As bubbles are are fragile and have a brief moment of beauty before they burst, artists painted children blowing bubbles to convey the brevity of human life, the transience of beauty and the inevitability of death, sometimes making the sentiment more explicit through the inclusion of skulls or a snuffed out candle.
570-1882 brings the tradition into the next century in a scene purporting to be all about lightness and frivolity as the children play unawares in an arcadian lanscape replete with flowers, ribbons, little dogs and sunshine. The crumbling ruin in the background being the only allusion to the passing of time. The blonde-pastel palette used seems to reinforce this sense of lightness and play and recalls contemporary French and Swiss works such as Jean-Etienne Liotard's (1702-1789) painting Children blowing bubbles which uses similar palette of blues, pale pinks whites and grey.

This work derives from a tradition of 17th century Dutch Genre and Vanitas paintings. Genre paintings generally represented the lower classes of society, especially peasants, in scenes of everyday life and were often associated with popular literature and proverbs. In the 18th century the demand for small cabinet pictures grew and genre became increasingly popular. While traditional themes persisted in the Netherlands, the dominant centres, became France and England, while Italian artists made sporadic, often eccentric contributions. In Italy, although there was a persistent tradition of low-life scenes in Emilia, Lombardy and the Veneto, genre tended to appear outside the mainstream of official art and was created by powerful, non-conformist artists, whose aims, although perhaps linked to a desire for social and ethical reform, are hard to classify.
Other contemporary artists, such as Pietro Longhi presented a more prosaic record of daily life in 18th-century Venice including balls, concerts, dancing lessons and social visits while Tiepolo created enchanted scenes that present both an Arcadian rustic world, touched with wit and grace, and the sumptuous elegance of aristocratic Venice.

This work also derives from the Vanitas [Lat.: ‘emptiness’] tradition of paintings which were concerned with the fragility of man and his world of desires and pleasures in the face of the inevitability and finality of death. It essentially refers to the vanity of earthly possessions and was a particularly important element in paintings in the Netherlands in the 17th century.

Originally thought to be French, this has subsequently been reattributed to the Italian School based on its poplar support.

Originally thought to be French, 570-1882 has subsequently been reattributed to the Italian School based on its poplar support -a wood most commonly used on the peninsula while oak was used in the North. The subject derives from the Dutch 17th century Genre and Vanitas traditions such as Caspar Netscher's Two Boys Blowing Bubbles ca. 1670 (London, National Gallery). Children blowing bubbles are often a symbol of the transience of human life according to the ancient motto 'homo bulla' (man is a bubble). The motto was reintroduced in the sixteenth century by the Dutch philosopher Erasmus in his “Adagia”, a collection of sayings published in 1572. As bubbles are are fragile and have a brief moment of beauty before they burst, artists painted children blowing bubbles to convey the brevity of human life, the transience of beauty and the inevitability of death, sometimes making the sentiment more explicit through the inclusion of skulls or a snuffed out candle.
570-1882 brings the tradition into the next century in a scene purporting to be all about lightness and frivolity as the children play unawares in an arcadian lanscape replete with flowers, ribbons, little dogs and sunshine; the crumbling ruin in the background however alludes to the passing of time. The blonde-pastel palette used seems to reinforce this sense of lightness and play and recalls contemporary French and Swiss works such as Jean-Etienne Liotard's (1702-1789) painting Children blowing bubbles which uses similar palette of blues, pale pinks whites and grey.

570-1882