しゃぼん玉

A golden-haired little boy gazes up at a floating soap bubble, lit against the gloom. Millais painted his grandson as a meditation on fragile life, and the picture became one of the most famous advertisements ever made.

The story behind the painting

In his later years Millais was well known for pictures of children, and this was one of many. He painted it in 1886 and called it A Child's World. The model was his five-year-old grandson, William Milbourne James. Millais based the idea on 17th-century Dutch vanitas images, which reflected on how short life is and sometimes showed young boys blowing bubbles, typically beside skulls and other signs of death. The painting was first exhibited in 1886 at the Grosvenor Gallery in London under its original title.

What to look for

The boy, with golden hair, looks up at a bubble that symbolises the beauty and fragility of life. On one side of him grows a young plant in a pot, an emblem of life; on the other lies a fallen, broken pot, an emblem of death. He is spot-lit against a dark background, so the light falls on his face and the bubble while everything else sinks into shadow. Look for the two pots: they hold the old Dutch message quietly at the edges of a sweet scene.

Meaning and intent

Sir William Ingram of The Illustrated London News acquired the painting to reproduce it in his newspaper. Thomas J. Barratt, managing director of A and F Pears, saw the colour plate and bought the original, gaining exclusive copyright. Millais's permission was sought to add a bar of Pears soap so it could be used in advertising. At first Millais, then one of Britain's most popular artists, was uneasy about his work and his grandson being used commercially, but when shown the proofs he came to like the idea, which suggested the child had made the bubbles with the soap.

Legacy

The advertisement started a wide debate about art and advertising. The novelist Marie Corelli accused Millais in The Sorrows of Satan of prostituting his talent to sell soap. He replied that he had sold the copyright and could not stop the company. His son later claimed he had tried to stop the advert but was told he had no legal grounds. Corelli withdrew her remarks in a later edition. William Milbourne James rose to be an admiral in the Royal Navy and was called Bubbles all his life. Since 2006 the painting has been in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.