One can almost feel in his fingertips the heavy wool rug over the table, the crisp linen of the woman's headdress, the leather of the chair back, the metal of the pitcher. Above all, his marvelous rendering of color values gives the picture a most realistic impression of depth and space. At the same time it unifies everything with a soft blue tone and makes it glow with warmth and light. The interest of Dutch people in their surroundings led artists to paint landscapes such as 'Wheatfields' by Jacob van Ruisdael. In comparison to Brueghel, Van Ruisdael is not so much interested in man's relation to nature as in nature itself the sky, the land, and the trees that make up a landscape.
Man is small when compared to the great forces of nature.
Although he lived almost a century later than Van Ruisdael, Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, the French painter, is similar in spirit to these Dutch artists. Most of the other important painters of his day were in the employ of the aristocracy and painted pictures of court life. Chardin painted the activities and interests of the common people. Blowing Bubbles' is subdued in color, yet radiant with light that touches the face and hands and the bubble. Chardin became interested in painting still lifes.