Bellenblazende putto met een zeis 1808 - 1876

Vincent van der Vinne van Lee made this small etching of a cherubic figure blowing bubbles, sometime in the first three quarters of the 19th century. It has some intriguing and contrasting imagery. A putto, often associated with love or innocence, is here paired with a scythe, a symbol of death, and skulls. Van der Vinne van Lee was a member of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke, an institution that regulated artistic production and training in the Netherlands. Guilds like this had a long history dating back to the medieval period and served to protect the interests of artists. The imagery plays with life and death, perhaps a comment on mortality or the transience of life. What does it mean to pair such joyous imagery, the bubbles, with the end of life? To better understand this work, we might research the traditions and iconography of Dutch art, the role of guilds in artistic production, and the social context in which images of putti and death were circulated.