Art Prints 2015-16 (Part I: the First Two Terms)

Ah, another year, another crop of artists. Over the past few years, art study has become one of my favorite subjects, and I'm really excited about this year's choices. As usual, we will be following the Ambleside Online schedule. I love the variety of artists, the AO leadership always picks great pictures, and it's fun to share resources with other people on the forum. We'll be studying two Frenchman this year, so I will be curious to hear the kids compare and contrast them.

In term 1, we start off with Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Last week, the kids brought me the image of the day from their Metropolitan Art Calendar. (They do this anytime a day's art particularly catches their eyes.) I noticed that the painting was by Camille Corot and took the opportunity to tell them about their upcoming study. Although it was a small connection, it has them excited to see more of his paintings.

4x6 cards print three on a page

I have specific frames for our picture study, so these prints will print on a standard-sized computer paper, and they are intended to be trimmed down to an 8x10" size. I take my file to Office Max and have them printed on glossy cardstock. They always do a beautiful job, and their prices are the most reasonable in (our) town. You can download 8x10" prints here, including a self-portrait of Corot. We don't usually discuss the self-portrait; we just add it to our gallery so the kids can "meet" the painter.

In our house, all school-aged (or teacher-aged) people get their own Book of Masterpieces, with smaller copies of each of the pictures that person has studied. You can click here to download the 4x6" series.

 In Term 2 we'll study Jacques-Louis David. I don't know about the kids, but I am ridiculously excited about this artist. Two years ago, I took my kiddos to a large art museum to see the French exhibit. The girls were looking forward to seeing one of "their" Manets. We all enjoyed the exhibit quite a bit, but I was particularly captivated by this enormous painting of a Roman man and his grieving family. The look on his face, the tension in his fists and shoulders, the terrible grief of the women in the family... I stood there staring at it until the girls dragged me off. It was so captivating that I wrote down the title and artist, looked it up, and printed off a copy for myself when I came home. Then, a couple months ago, my oldest started Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. In the life of Publicola, we read the story of Brutus, who condemned his own sons to death to save the Republic. I remembered the picture and pulled it up to show her. Then, lo and behold, when I looked up this year's artist, what do I see but that same captivating painting offered as a study option?! **insert happy dance here**

You can download the 8x10" prints here, including a self-portrait of David. We are going to study Brutus instead of The Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine, but I included both options in the print files. Delete whichever you don't want to study. You can download the 4x6" series here.

That's it so far. Stay tuned for term 3, when we will take a big jump in time and space...


Update: Several people have had problems downloading files from my previous file host. I have updated the links to Google Docs. If you download these files after 9/04/15, would you mind leaving me a comment letting me know whether your download was successful, or if you have any problems? Thanks ever so much!