The Story of the World's Greatest Paintings

Here are twenty world-famous artworks featured in easy-to-follow chronological order, including: Jan Van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait, Paolo Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano, Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Children’s Games, Jan Vermeer’s The Artist’s Studio, John Constable’s The Hay Wain, Winslow Homer’s Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), Auguste Renoir’s La Loge, Berthe Morisot’s Summer’s Day, Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Paul Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire, and Paul Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? All of the works are remarkable paintings with remarkable histories that have been chosen specifically to appeal to a young audience. The illustrations include a portrait or self-portrait of each artist, as well as a reproduction of their masterpiece, along with carefully selected details and other paintings by the same artist for comparison. The entertaining and informative texts give an account of the artists at work, and extended picture captions offer further information. Each section is accompanied by a “Why Don’t You?” box suggesting a practical art project; a “Did You Know?” box with extra information; and a “Want to See More?” feature box with useful Web sites. 120 color illustrations