Boy Blowing Bubbles by Édouard Manet - 1867 - 100.5 x 81.4 cm Museu Calouste Gulbenkian Boy Blowing Bubbles by Édouard Manet - 1867 - 100.5 x 81.4 cm Museu Calouste Gulbenkian

Boy Blowing Bubbles

oil on canvas • 100.5 x 81.4 cm
  • Édouard Manet - 23 January 1832 - 30 April 1883 Édouard Manet 1867

Boy Blowing Bubbles depicts Léon Koelin-Leenhoff, the illegitimate son (possibly fathered by Manet) of Manet's future wife, Suzanne Leenhoff. The painting shows him aged 15 blowing soap bubbles, a traditional symbol of the brevity of life. Good painting for this year, I think.

The dark background, the simple forms, and the restrained nature of the composition appear to evoke 18th-century French painting. The free and direct style of the whole, with its clearly defined figure accentuated by the contrast between light and shade, calls to mind the genius of great masters such as Murillo and Frans Hals. At the same time the contemporary clothing and roughly impastoed surface of Boy Blowing Bubbles are consistent with Manet's Realist determination to paint modern life.

P.S. Have a great Sunday everyone! Have a look of these amazing portraits by Édouard Manet!