I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to help parents talk about works of art with their toddlers and preschoolers. To help you get comfortable talking about art with your kids, I’ve put together a list of 20 artworks that work well with toddlers and preschoolers.
My two-year-old sat on my lap while I was finding the artworks, so many of these are Zuzu-approved! 🙂 These are in no order, but the first one was Zuzu’s favorite!
I’ve included the pictures below (or a link to them if they are copyrighted).
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Henri Rousseau, The Dream, 1910, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom (1826), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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Grant Wood, Parson Weems’ Fable, 1939 – http://www.cartermuseum.org/artworks/269
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Marc Chagall, Paris Through My Window, 1913, Oil on canvas, Guggenheim Museum, New York
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Marc Chagall, The Violinist, 1912-1913, Oil on canvas, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
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Melissa Miller, Ghost Net, 2013 – http://melissamillerartist.com/2002-2014/oils/view/92
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Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians, 1921, MOMA
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Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas, 1656, Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Paul Gauguin, We Hail Thee Mary (La Orana Maria), 1891, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, 1897, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Carmen Lomas Garza, Empanadas, 1991 – http://carmenlomasgarza.com/artwork/paintings/ (Image 17)
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Seth Eastman, Ballplay of the Dakota on the St. Peters River in Winter, 1848, oil on canvas, Amon Carter Museum
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Thomas Cole, The Hunter’s Return, 1845, oil on canvas, Amon Carter Museum
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Pieter Bruegel, Children’s Games, 1560, Oil on oak panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna
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Indian, Ganesha, 1st half 11th century, muscovite biotite schist, Walters Art Museum
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Hashimoto Chikanobu, A Group of Children Playing under the Plum Blossoms in the Snow, 1887, Japanese Woodblock print, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Joan Miro, Dutch Interior I, 1928 – http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79023
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Egyptian, Nebamun hunting in the marshes, fragment of a scene from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun, Late 18th Dynasty, around 1350 BCE, The British Museum
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André Derain, The Dance, 1906
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Mary Cassatt, Summertime, 1894
Look at one or more of these with your littles and let me know how it went in the comments. Which one was your child’s favorite?
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I must be a little kid at heart as these are some of the pieces that make my heart the happiest. Rousseau’s Dream was my favorite as a very small child after seeing it at the MOMA, and now I dream I am her….
Thank you. It is really those art pieces that we connect with most that we can bring to the kids in the most authentic way. Keep dreaming….
Most of these are fabulous. I teach at a learning center, which is attended by all homeschooled students. Their parents are very sensitive, so I have to be very careful bout the images I present. I love Rousseau, but I chose other works of his which would not offend my parents (his other jungle pieces with no humans in them). We also looked at The Sleeping Gypsy. Then, the kids worked on an artwork inspired by those pieces. The Sleeping Gypsy inspired a lively conversation. Super fun!
Thank you for the Sleeping Gypsy lesson included in the library.
Thank you so much for sharing Jennifer! That sounds like a lovely lesson.
I came here after looking at your 52 artwork selection, because I teach in an elementary school, and I was hoping for a more “G-rated” selection. While I agree with all your selections from an art standpoint, I cannot use many of these pieces; they are simply not appropriate for elementary students. No amount of explanation is going to mitigate the impact of nudity or violence. I once was asked to remove a 5 minute video on a sculpture garden because there was a 2-second clip of a bare-breasted woman. It is sad, but in our cancel culture, you have to be extra careful.
I do wish our culture was more open to seeing the human form as it originally comes into the world, but you’re right it is a sensitive subject that most times parents want to decide on in their homes vs in the classroom. That said, I understand that not all of artworks are going to work for every classroom, and we do have many more lists with many more examples to inspire. Also, we have been known to photoshop some cover-ups for teachers that are not allowed to show nudity in their classroom.