Artists for the Classroom

Michelangelo- I would use Michelangelo to teach my students about his paintings, sculptors as well as architecture. I would focus on the Sistine Chapel and David. I would also discuss life in Rome during this time.
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/michelangelo.htm

Leonardo Da Vinci- Da Vinci was a sculptor, a scientist, an inventor, an architect, a musician, and a mathematician. When he was twenty, he helped his teacher finish a painting called The Baptism of Christ. When he was thirty, he moved to Milan. That is where he painted most of his pictures. Da Vinci's paintings were done in the Realist style. Areas of interest would be the famous Mona Lisa as well as his many inventions!
http://www.surfnetkids.com/davinci.htm

Vincent Van Gogh- He worked at many jobs, such as at an art gallery, a school, a bookstore, as a preacher, and at lastly, he became an artist. He didn't have a very happy life. He painted sad paintings with poor people in them. His paintings were always very dark until he saw some colorful Japanese paintings. Then Van Gogh started painting happier paintings. I would also tell about his struggles in his life.
http://www.geocities.com/ljacoby_2000/vangogh.html
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.html

Pablo Picasso- Picasso’s work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the African-influenced Period (1908–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919). Because much of his work consisted of multiple styles, Picasso became very famous. He used great lines and color in his paintings.
http://www.surfnetkids.com/picasso.htm


Claude Monet- Claude Oscar Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting . The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise