Plate Depicting the Soap Bubble Blower (La souffleuse de savon)

c. 1760–70

Plate Depicting the Soap Bubble Blower (La souffleuse de savon), c. 1760–70. Jean Daulle (French, 1703–1763), after François Boucher (French, 1703–1770). Salt-glazed, transfer-printed stoneware; diameter: 21 cm (8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of R. Thornton Wilson in memory of his wife, Florence Ellsworth Wilson 1948.118 English potteries often courted aristocratic clients with cheaper wares that looked like more expensive works from the major centers of porcelain production in the eighteenth century, especially France, Germany, and China. In this case, the image printed in center of the plate depicts a young lady, enticing a boy with her skill at blowing soap bubbles through a thin pipe. The print was taken from an etching by Jean Daullé (French, 1703–1763), of the painting La souffleuse de savon (1758) by Francois Boucher (French, 1703–1770). This plate depicts a young lady blowing soap bubbles next to a very interested young boy.