Still Life with Hubble-Bubble 

Theodor Pallady painted this still life of a Hubble-Bubble, or Hookah pipe, in oil paint on an unknown date. The objects displayed, including the titular Hubble-Bubble, create meaning through their status as exotic goods. Pallady was Romanian, but he spent much of his life in Paris. There he became involved in the Post-Impressionist movement, where artists were interested in depicting everyday life. This interest is reflected here. Still life as a genre was historically associated with wealth, and it remains so here in its display of expensive and rare luxury items. In this way, it can be viewed as a reflection on the economic structures that shaped Europe in the early 20th century. To understand this painting better, we might research Pallady’s biography, to investigate his position as a Romanian artist in Paris. Understanding art as contingent on social and institutional context allows us to see it as something that has the power to challenge existing social norms.