Art in Ads · 10

Soap Bubbles 150 Years Before the Soap Ad

A century and a half before the bubble boy in a British soap ad, a young man in Paris was already blowing bubbles.

Jean Siméon Chardin, Soap Bubbles, ca. 1733–34

Soap Bubbles

Jean Siméon Chardinca. 1733–34

01Where you've seen it

In 1886 the British painter John Everett Millais painted his young grandson gazing up at a soap bubble. The soap company Pears bought the painting, added a bar of soap to one corner, and used it as an advertisement. As the ad spread, the picture became known as Bubbles.

Turning a painter's work into a soap ad caused a stir in Britain. The argument over whether art should sell things still sounds familiar today.

02The real story

Chardin painted Soap Bubbles in Paris around 1733 to 1734. A young man leaning on a stone window ledge blows a bubble through a thin straw, while a small child peeks over the ledge.

Chardin painted this scene more than once, and similar versions survive in other museums. He caught a clear bubble that is about to burst and held the whole scene still, as if everyone were holding their breath. There is no slogan and no soap here. Still, once you see it, it stays with you.

Tell a friend like this

The bubble painting that became a soap ad was Millais. About 150 years before that, Chardin painted a young man blowing bubbles.

One line is enough.
Next time that painting shows up, your friend will spot it first.

See this painting up close →