Portrait of Adam Wachendorff, with a Putto Blowing Bubbles

The sitter, Adam Wachendorff, can be identified from the family coat of arms on his watch case. He was the secretary of the London offices of the Hanseatic League, a trading alliance of European cities. The Greek inscription on the original frame (‘Man is a soap bubble’) and the naked youth blowing bubbles on the reverse allude to the transience of human life.