Artist Study

Below is the list of artists we will study over the years.  When we're done with the list, we'll start back at the top again.  We try to read a short biography then we study one picture a week, for about 6 weeks.  I love the Mike Venezia Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artist series.  If he doesn't have a book about a particular artist I check the library or Amazon for suggestions.  If all else fails I hit Wikipedia.

I used to worry about matching the artist with the historical time period we were studying, but it became too stressful and I felt like I was being ruled by the schedule instead of enjoying the process of learning.  We now study whoever, whenever and the kids make the connections themselves.  We do add them to a timeline/Book of Centuries so they get a good feel for when the artist lived.

I print out pictures from a yahoo group at Ambleside Online.  They are nicely formatted with the title included.  If we study an artist they don't have pictures for then I try to find a calendar or book, or print something from the internet.  We have an easel and picture frame where we display the picture (or book or calendar).  Each week we switch the picture for  new one.  The pictures are then stored in a 3-ring binder, in page protectors, so we can look back through them (and use them next time around).  Basically, we are creating our own art book (with mom-approved pictures).

Simply Charlotte Mason has an excellent description of how to "look" at the pictures for artist study here.

Pieter Breugel the Elder

JMW Turner   

Titian

Leonardo da Vinci

Rembrandt van Rijn

Jan Van Eyck (No)

Sandro Botticelli (Maybe)

Caspar David Friedrich

Vincent van Gogh

Raphael Sanzio

John Singer Sargent

Claude Monet

N.C. Wyeth

Albrecht Durer

Caravaggio

Jean Honore Fragonard        

Norman Rockwell

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Ruisdael

Pieter De Hootch

Jacob van Ruisdael

Paul Gaugin

Paul Cezanne

Georges Seurat

John Singleton Copley

Ansel Adams

Gilbert Stuart

Edgar Degas

Edouard Manet

Hudson River Artists

          Thomas Cole

          Frederick Edwin Church

          Jasper Francis Cropsey

          Asher Durand

Peter Paul Rubens

Diego Velasquez (read I, Juan de Pareja)

Camille Corot

Gustave Courbet

Jacques-Louis David

Mary Cassatt

Giotto di Bondone

Winslow Homer

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Jan Vermeer

John William Waterhouse

Pablo Picasso

Georgia O’Keefe

Frederick Remington

Thomas Kinkade

John James Audubon

Frans Lanting

Vermeer

MC Escher

Christian Riese Lassen

P. Buckely Moss

Maxfield Parrish

Jean Francois Millet

Rosa Bonheur

Frans Hals

Diego Velasquez

James Whistler

Grant Wood

Grandma Moses

Did I miss any of your favorites?