The child’s delight in pictures—The vital questions concerning the child’s pictures—Permanent effect of good and bad art on the taste—Difference between the general knowledge of books and that of pictures—The multiplication of process reproductions—How companionship helps the child in picture study—Picture enjoyment spoiled by mechanical methods
The child’s first pleasure in pictures due to recognition—The element of curiosity—The story picture and the appeal to the imagination—Subjects to which children are indifferent, portraiture and pure landscape—Preparing the way for enjoyment of nature pictures—Subjects to withhold from children: the vulgar and sensuous, the repugnant and horrible—Mistake of forcing uninteresting subjects upon the child—The child’s unaffected joy in art
Advantage to mothers and educators in knowing something of the construction of a picture—Ruskin’s definition of composition—Principality—Favorite compositional forms of various painters—Repetition—Examples—Contrast—Examples—Consistency and continuity—Distinction between the subject and the art of a picture—The child’s gradual awakening to the beauties of composition—Reference books
The value of pictures in supplying stories to tell children—The Aurora—Difference in children in knowing the stories of the home pictures—The Children’s Picture Hour—Story of Landseer’s Shoeing—Prince Baltasar on his Pony—Raphael’s St. Michael and the Dragon—Child’s share in the story-telling—Picture story-telling in schools—Millet’s Feeding her Birds—Distinction between this method and picture reading as pursued in some schools—The story of Christ’s life told in pictures—Christmas story program in pictures and verse.
An old game in a new form—Picture-posing fixes picture in the memory and helps in self-expression—Practical experiments in picture-posing in the schools—Millet’s Sower—Titian’s Lavinia—Murillo’s Fruit Venders—Madame Le Brun and her Daughter—Rubens’s Two Sons—William M. Chase’s Alice—Larger possibilities for the game in the home—Picture-posing in amateur photography—Desirable qualities in pictures chosen for posing—Lists
Twofold value of pictures in school, for decoration and to enrich the courses of study—Pictures in the primary school to illustrate the first ideas taught the child, animals, family love, labor—Pictures in language work as subjects for compositions—Distinction between storytelling and description—Pictures in the study of literature—Portraits of authors—Illustrations of poems—Indirect illustration—Shakespearean collections—The evolution of book-making—Illustrations of mythology—Pictures in history—Portrait list—Illustrations of ancient history—French history—English history—American history—Care not to let the utilitarian view outweigh the artistic
Essential qualities of good animal art—Animal art among the ancients—Animal painting among early Christian artists—Beginning of modern animal painting in seventeenth century—Child’s favorites, domestic pets, then wild animals—Pictures of children with pets—Many-sided animal life shown by collation of pictures by different artists: dog, lion, deer, horse, sheep, fox—Cattle painting in Dutch school—French schools—Landseer and Bonheur—Henrietta Ronner’s cats—Photographs of animals—Reference books—Lists
Popularity and value of pictures of children—Late historical development of subject —The Madonna subject—Contrasting motives in two great Raphaels—Charity—Holy Family—Subjects from infancy of Jesus—Child angels—Value of child portraiture—Rarity in Renaissance and popularity in seventeenth century—Essential qualities of good child portraiture—Velasquez—Greuze—Van Dyck—English eighteenth-century school—Reynolds and his group—Modern examples—Lists—Reference books
Importance of choosing good picture material for storytelling—Distinction between building story on a picture and drawing story out of a picture—Story pictures which never lose interest and those which go out of fashion—Murillo’s Beggar Boys—Jan Steen’s picture of child life—Peter de Hooch’s domestic little girls—Variety of story interests appealing to child in pictures—Dutch seventeenth-century school—Chardin—Millet—Breton—Pictures of haymaking—Horatio Walker—Pictures of sea life—Bradford—Winslow Homer—The Fighting Téméraire and the Constitution—Story pictures illustrating lives of saints, heroes, and martyrs—St. Margaret—St. Francis—St. Anthony—St. Christopher—Maiden saints—Allegory in mural decoration—Life of Jesus—Lists
