Des vrais petits anges!

In this episode, the children discuss Paul Cézanne's Still Life with Apples and Oranges. This painting is a mountain of apples and oranges that simply revolutionized painting. Paul's great specialty is still life paintings. Works that feature, as their name suggests, dead or inanimate things. To paint a still life is to take…

The children discuss the work White Bear by François Pompon. This sculpture is exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. This bear is also very famous. François' specialty was animal sculptures. It took Pompon a while to find his style but he found that animals pose much better than humans because they never lose their…

In this episode, the children discuss Rembrandt Harmenzoon Van Rijn's very serious self-portrait. This painter did many famous paintings. He had another passion, printmaking. At that time, to be really fashionable, you had to paint or engrave portraits. So Rembrandt did a lot of them. He is often his own model... this is called a…

The children discuss Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. This painting depicts Genesis, which is God's creation of man. Michelangelo was a huge art star during the Renaissance. Many of his paintings are in the Pope's palace in Rome in the Sistine Chapel.

In this episode, the children discuss Jean-François Millet's Angelus. The painting shows a man and a woman meditating in a field, near a pitchfork, a basket of potatoes and a wheelbarrow. They are reciting the Angelus, a prayer said in Latin which at the time had to be recited three times a day. The one where two peasants stop in…

The children discuss the work Mature Age by Camille Claudel. This sculpture represents a painful moment in Camille's life: a breakup in love. Claudel was very talented and she was the assistant of Augustin Rodin, the artist who made the famous 'Thinker'. Camille and Augustin fell madly in love and it is this breakup…

In this episode, the children discuss the painting Ophelia by John Everett Millais. This painting features an idyllic landscape but also depicts a tragedy: a drowning. The story of Ophelia, a literary heroine through her love affair with Hamlet. In the play by the great English writer William Shakespeare, Hamlet leaves Ophelia. This…

In this episode, the children discuss the painting The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds by Georges de La Tour. As the painting's title suggests, this painting depicts someone cheating at cards in a game once called 'Prime,' the forerunner of poker. Georges became rich and famous with his artistic talents. In terms of…

The children discuss the Casket of Tutankhamun. A sarcophagus made of gold and precious stones with incredible decorations! Such luxurious models were reserved for the kings who were called pharaohs. Tutankhamun was not a famous pharaoh, but his tomb became the greatest masterpiece of humanity.

In this episode, the children discuss the work Le petit Poucet by Gustave Doré. This work contains a dark and eerie forest with a line of people and we see a little boy trailing at the back of the line dropping small pebbles. Gustave was a draftsman and engraver in the nineteenth century. He had a gift for making us feel the…

The children discuss Paul Klee's Castle and the Sun. This painting shows a castle painted with several rectangles, squares and triangles of different colors. Then a sun is painted over the castle. Paul always kept his childlike imagination. From the very beginning, we find his whimsical touch. Klee soon became interested in…

In this episode, the children discuss the painting The Balloon by Felix Vallotton. The painting shows a girl running on a beach in the foreground while the adults are talking in the background in a large garden. Felix, the Swiss artist who painted this work 120 years ago is an anarchist, a libertarian. He defends absolute freedom! By…

The children discuss Caravaggio's Saint Jerome Writing. The painting is of an old man sitting at a table covered with a large cloth up to his legs. A cloth hangs down to the floor, trapped under a book. The man who painted this picture is Michelangelo Merisi, nicknamed 'Caravaggio' after the small Italian town where he…

In this episode, the children discuss Piet Mondrian's Composition in Red, Yellow, Blue and Black. This very simple painting shows a red square, a yellow rectangle and two white rectangles. Despite its simplicity, this is a masterpiece that revolutionized modern art.

The children discuss the work Paintings of Lascaux. This is one of the first works of art of all time. It dates back to prehistoric times. The paintings were made in the Lascaux cave in France by prehistoric people about 20,000 years ago. Considering the means of the time, they are very impressive. A young man named Marcel, 17 years…