Who Is the Artist?

An engaging and clever introductory art series, Who is the Artist? pairs age-appropriate (grades 4-7) insights into the lives, works and techniques of noted artists with reinforcing questions encouraging the viewer to link a particular painting with its author. In Who Is the Artist? Degas, Renoir, Cassatt viewers examine 24 masterworks, including Edgar Degas' The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Ball at the Moulin de la Galette and Mary Cassatt's Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, looking for characteristic themes and stylistic signatures that embody each artist's work. Initially, viewers are asked to distinguish between the work of two of the artists (Degas and Renoir, or Degas and Cassatt), but by program's end viewers are able to confidently predict the identity of the artist for each of the paintings shown. Useful, interactive, and affordable, this is recommended, along with its companion volume Who Is the Artist?: Cézanne, Van Gogh, Seurat, which uses the same format to familiarize younger viewers with principles of Post-Impressionism, as found in the work of three key artists. Aud: E, I, P. (R. Pitman)