Picture Books with Famous Artworks for Kids

Introducing Young Children to Well-Known Artists

Aug 26, 2008

Many famous artworks are appealing to young children when they are presented in a format that the child can relate to. These picture books do just that.

While some art is best appreciated by a more mature audience, many famous artworks can be of interest to children under the age of ten if they are presented in a style and format that children find appealing.

Books such as The Art Book for Children and The Art Book for Children (Book 2) seek to introduce elementary and primary school aged children to art appreciation and awareness of the variety of artistic styles and formats, but sometimes a more simple approach is more appropriate.

The Badly Drawn Dog is tired of being badly drawn. He wants to improve his scribbly, scrawly and sketchy around the eyes appearance and finds a local artist who is willing to give him an image makeover.

His first attempt results in a Picasso-esque image that he finds a little hard to manage. The second results in Van Gogh-ish swirls that confuse and dazzle his friend Doodle the Poodle. Image number three is an Andy Warhol Marilyn make-over, complete with baby-blue eyeshadow and pouting red lips. Eventually the Badly Drawn Dog returns to his original smudged outline.

In the background of the artists studio, a variety of famous paintings are hung and slightly altered with dogs replacing the central figures.

A winner of the Hans Christian Anderson medal for excellence in illustration, Willy’s Pictures shares the idea that every painting tells a story. Willy the chimpanzee provides captions for a selection of his favourite paintings, each slightly altered to include himself, his girlfriend Millie and/or his nemesis Buster Nose, the gorilla.

There are also less familiar classics such as: Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s The Tower of Babel, Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Marriage and Goya’s The Straw Mannequin. A total of 16 paintings are featured with images from an additional eight included.

At the end of the book, a picture of each featured artwork is shown with information about the title, artist, year it was painted and a brief description.

Aimed at children aged 8+. Anna Nilsen’s Art Auction Mystery challenges children to spot the fakes in the collection of artworks waiting at the city auction house. Readers must decide which artworks are fakes and solve the mystery of who stole the originals.

Described as a spot-the-difference game, a mystery story and a reference book, Art Auction Mystery features 34 paintings from the Hamburg Kunsthalle, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Prado in Madrid. Featured artists include Bosch, Dürer, Picasso, Cézanne, Whistler, Warhol, Rousseau, Vuillard and Renoir.

In a split page format, each painting is shown as an auction piece and in the auction catalogue, which also include information about the artist and his or her works. Readers must compare the two images to find the fakes, which always contain an error.

Sharing Famous Artwork with Children

Picture books such as these expose children to famous artworks and artists in an enjoyable way, making the artworks themselves more approachable. Building a familiarity with classic works of art serves as a foundation for future enjoyment of art in all its forms.

The copyright of the article Picture Books with Famous Artworks for Kids in Picture Books is owned by Susan Whelan. Permission to republish Picture Books with Famous Artworks for Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.