While strolling through a vendor hall at a homeschool conference I stumbled upon this treasure. I love quality art history products and this is just that. 75 separate 51/2" x 41/4" cards are included in the set with seven artist profile cards and 68 specific full-color, high quality painting cards. The paintings in and of themselves would have been nice, but what makes the set fantastic are the profile cards.

Each of the seven profile cards details an Impressionist artist. They are: Cassatt, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissaro, and Renoir. Along with a small painted portrait of the artist the profile card enables you to identify that person's work by detailing their style in an easy to understand manner. For example on the Renoir card it lists:

French Impressionist Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Subject: Portraits of radiant women and children, Parisians in social gatherings enjoying life in places such as cafes and in activities like dancing.
Style: Glowing, feathering, and soft in appearance.

While this may seem simple, it comprises a lot when you look at Renoir's work. It narrows down what he normally paints into categories easily identifiable to children so that they can look at various artist's major work and say, "Hey! That is a Renior!" For each of the seven artists this is done and it really makes learning an artist's style simple.

Within the 68 paintings (all identified by name and date of completion on the reverse side) there are eight Cassatt, eleven Degas, seven Manet, fourteen Monet, seven Morisot, eight Pissarro, and thirteen Renoir. Start with the first artist and memorize their subject and style and flash through the cards for that person. Then slowly move up through the other artists and works until you have done them all. Then mix them all together and test your knowledge! This makes for a fantastic way to learn the artists and can be a game at the same time - race the clock and test your knowledge of the masters of Impressionism.

I was very happy to discover such a tremendously useful and beautiful tool to learn the artists and look forward to their future set on the Renaissance.



-- Product Review by: Kate Kessler, Product Reviews Manager, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC