# Two Boys Blowing Bubbles [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [NETSCHER, Caspar]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on panel, 31 x 25 cm ## Commentary Two Boys Blowing Bubbles c. 1670 Oil on panel, 31 x 25 cm National Gallery, London In Netscher's genre paintings from the late 1660s children appears repeatedly. Like all genre paintings, these depictions are conventional images. Two Boys Blowing Bubbles ranks among Netscher's most engaging paintings of children. The young lad in the background blows a bubble while his older playmate gazes at one floating above. Two seashells and a very ornate silver tazza \(which expertly reproduces one fabricated by the renowned silversmith Adam van Vianen in 1618\) lie on the ledge before the boys. The motif of bubble blowing in Dutch art is traditionally associated with the Latin expression, "Homo Bulla" \(Man is Like a Bubble\). This refers to the ephemerality of human existence like: like a soap bubble which quickly bursts, life is fleeting. ## Related artworks - [Interior with a Sleeping Soldier]() - [Portrait of a Lady]() - [Portrait of Abraham van Lennep]() - [Portrait of Mary Stuart II]() - [Portrait of Suzanna Huygens]() - [Presentation of the Medallion]() - [The Card Party]() - [The Lace-Maker]() - [The Seduction]() - [Young Girl Holding a Letter \(detail\)]() - [Young Girl Holding a Letter]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()