Artist Study

Below is the list of artists we might study over the years. 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.  Simply Charlotte Mason has some beautiful artist study portfolios as well. 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.


Giotto di Bondone (1266 - 1337)
Jan Van Eyck (1395 - 1441)
Fra Angelico (1395 - 1445)
Sandro Botticelli (1445 - 1510)
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
Albrecht Durer (1471 - 1528)
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564)
Raphael Sanzio (1483 - 1520)
Titian (1485 - 1576)
Pieter Breugel the Elder (1525 - 1569)

El Greco (1541 - 1614)
Caravaggio (1571 - 1610)
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640)
Frans Hals (1580 - 1666)
Diego Velasquez (1599 - 1660; read I, Juan de Pareja)
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 - 1669)
Jacob van Ruisdael (1628 - 1682)
Pieter De Hootch (1629 - 1684)
Johannes (or Jan) Vermeer (1632 - 1675)
Jean Honore Fragonard (1732 - 1806)
Benjamin West (1738 - 1820)
John Singleton Copley (1738 - 1815)
Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828)
Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
Caspar David Friedrich (1774 - 1840)

Gilbert Stuart (1755 - 1828)
JMW Turner (1775 - 1851)
Constable (1776 - 1837)
John James Audubon (1785 - 1851)
Camille Corot (1796 - 1875)
Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863)
George Caleb Bingham (1811 - 1879)

Hudson River Artists

          Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848)

          Frederick Edwin Church (1826 - 1900)

          Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823 - 1900)

          Asher Durand (1796 - 1886)

Jean Francois Millet (1814 - 1875)
Gustave Courbet (1819 - 1877)
Rosa Bonheur (1822 - 1899)
George Inness (1825 - 1894)
Albert Bierstadt (1830 - 1902)
Camille Pissarro (1830 - 1903)
Edouard Manet (1832 - 1883)
Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917)
James Whistler (1834 - 1903)
Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910)
Paul Cezanne (1839 - 1906)
Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919)
Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926)
Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903)
John William Waterhouse (1849 - 1917)

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925)

Georges Seurat (1859 - 1891)
Grandma Moses (1860 - 1961)
Frederic Remington (1861 - 1909)
Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954)
Maxfield Parrish (1870 - 1966)
Paul Klee (1879 - 1940)
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)

N.C. Wyeth (1882 - 1945)
Edward Hopper (1882 - 1967)
Diego Rivera (1886 - 1957)
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887 - 1986)
Marc Chagall (1887 - 1985)
Horace Pippin (1888 - 1946)
Minerva Reichert (1888 - 1976)
Grant Wood (1891 - 1942)

Norman Rockwell (1894 - 1978)
Dorothea Lange (1895 - 1965)
Rene Magritte (1898 - 1967)
Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)

MC Escher (1898 - 1972)

Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984)
Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989)
Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)
Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956)
Arnold Friberg (1913 - 2010)
Jacob Lawrence (1917 - 2000)
Roy Lichtenstein (1923 - 1997)
Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987)
Faith Ringgold (1930 - )
P. Buckley Moss (1933 - )
James Christensen (1942 - )
Del Parson (1948 - )
Christian Riese Lassen (1949 - )
Frans Lanting (1951 - )
Liz Lemon Swindle (1953 - )

Thomas Kinkade (1958 - 2012)
Greg Olsen (1958 - )
Simon Dewey (1962 - )

Did I miss any of your favorites?