Saturday, September 15, 2007

Chicago - Day 4 - Art Institute

On Day 4, we spent over 6 hours at the Art Institute of Chicago - and we could have stayed much longer! (Or come back a second day!) We were so excited to see so many artists... and specific paintings!... that we recognized.





Alexandra took a photo of each suit of armor.







I got excited to run into a few Precissionism paintings by Demuth that I had studied just a few weeks earlier!







We saw lots of paintings by Georgia O'Keefe.






American Gothic by Grant Wood - I'd always thought this was a farmer and his wife, but it is a farmer and his daughter!





Alexandra looking at one of the miniature room displays - there were probably 50 or so and they were so small and detailed! We both love miniatures.




I was excited to recognize this as a painting by Thomas Cole, Father of the Hudson River School of Art I also studied recently. And, my mom could even remember his 5 components of art I'd shared with her. He thought each piece of art should have: still water, a water feature, mountains, sky, and trees. (This is from memory - I'll have to look at my notes to make sure I got it right.)





Alexandra in front of Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath - one of our favorites! We stayed in front of this one quite a while.




Alexandra (and I!) got so excited to see this one. It is one of Picasso's paintings of Sylvette, "The Girl with the Ponytail." This one was titled Portrait of Sylvette David. We came to love this painting by reading the book Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail by Laurence Anholt. Great book and great story!





A painting by Picasso we see in books - Mother and Child.






This painting is called Rainy Street by Caillebotte. I took it because it was on the cover of a brochure Alexandra was carrying around. We bought the tour book and Alexandra loved looking through it and finding paintings that were in her book. It was like a scavanger or treasure hunt!





Another one Alexandra got very excited about since we'd studied it. This one is Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando by Renoir.




Another Picasso (who we're currently studying) from his Blue Period - The Old Guitarist.





Another example of Seurat's Pointilism which Alexandra was thrilled to recognize - Bathers at Asnieres.





Another we recognized - Van Gogh's Self Portrait.





And another we recognized - Bedroom in Arles by Van Gogh.










LOTS of Monet's!!!

And, a highlight was seeing Seurat's large painting, Sunday afternoon on La Grande Jatte. My mother has memories of seeing this painting when she was a little girl, and I hope Alexandra always remembers this special day when we saw so many incredible pieces of art!

8 comments:

Melissa Telling said...

You might like this website. It's written by another homeschooling mom & has great info on Charlotte Mason style artist study. http://www.squidoo.com/cmartiststudy/

Teacher of One said...

Oh... literally my favorite place in the WORLD besides Siesta Key FL! I remember crying the first time I walked in and saw all of these pieces that were "old friends". It is too bad that the moved Seurat's Garden to a big wall... the first time I saw it it sat between two doorways which magnified it's scale because it filled the whole wall.

I can't wait to take G (he is really enjoying your pics) it is only about 4 hours away.

Thanks for sharing!

MommyShan said...

Oh, Dana! I wish we could have been there with you! The Art Institute is so great! And - we enjoyed our co-op studies of the Impressionists so much - it was one of the highlights of last year! We will be thinking of you as we visit many museums in the next few weeks.

Looking forward to making more great memories with you guys this year!

Mrs. S and girls

Robin said...

Wow, what a great place! It must have taken hours to go through the entire exhibit. I've always wanted to go to an art museum, but no one in my family has the interest or the inclination. :-(

Teacher of One said...

I just found a FREE Mary Cassatt lapbook download!
http://www.handsofachild.com/2/freebies/

Christie

Anonymous said...

beautiful day. I love all the art. This museum is going on my "the next time I make it to Chicago" list.

Darla said...

Thank you for sharing your day with us. We've missed going to the museums and seeing the beautiful works of art.

Barb said...

Just popped in from the CM Artist Study group. Wow! What a day for you! I feel as if I am seeing some old friends there.....hmmm. Maybe a trip to Chicago is in order.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/harmonyartmom

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