KESSEL, Jan van, I
(b. 1626, Antwerpen, d. 1679, Antwerpen)

The Soap Bubbles

1660s
Oil on canvas, 67 x 51 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

The painting is the result of a collaboration with David Teniers the Younger. The decorative cartouche was painted by van Kessel, renowned for his compositions of shells and insects. The cartouche features four still-lifes on the elements: water is represented by fishes, air by birds, earth by fruit and flowers, and fire by the arms trophy at the top. Inside the stone cartouche Teniers revives a familiar theme, two boys blowing soap bubbles, an allegory of the vanity of worldly matters and the frailty of human life.