Closely examining artwork can be boring for some children and learning about different art styles among some of the world’s greatest artists can be tedious. However, Gallery Ghost by Anna Nilsen (Birdcage Press, ISBN 978-159960036-9) makes a game out of closely inspecting different works of art from the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
The Story
Sarah is an art student. During her nights, she works as a cleaning person at an art gallery. Luckily for her, this is also when the ghosts of famous painters come alive in the gallery and begin to paint details from their famous artworks onto other famous paintings.
The Game
Playing sleuth and using a magnifying glass, kids must closely examine each original painting and the painting one (or more) of the ghosts painted over. The goal is to find what has been added to each painting and which ghost is responsible for adding the extra detail.
Features 24 Famous Painters
Gallery Ghost includes the works of 24 famous artists:
- Hendrick Avercamp (A Scene on the Ice)
- Frederic Bazille (Young Woman with Peonies)
- Charles V. Bond (Still Life: Fruit, Bird, and Dwarf Pear Tree)
- Mary Cassatt (The Boating Party)
- George Catlin (The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas)
- Lyonel Feininger (The Bicycle Race)
- Paul Gauguin {Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven)
- William Michael Harnett (The Old Violin)
- Martin Johnson Heade (Cattleya Orchid and Three Brazilian Hummingbirds)
- Edward Hicks (Peaceable Kingdom)
- Winslow Homer (Breezing Up (A Fair Wind))
- Edward Hopper (Cape Cod Evening)
- Jan van Huysum (Flowers in an Urn)
- Paul Klee (Steamship and Sailboats)
- Gustav Klimt (Baby (Cradle))
- Edouard Manet (The Railway)
- Amedeo Modigliani (Gypsy Woman with Baby)
- Adriaen van Ostade (The Cottage Dooryard)
- Horace Pippin (Interior)
- Auguste Renoir (Oarsmen at Chatou)
- Henri Rousseau (Tropical Forest with Monkeys)
- Joseph Mallord William Turner (Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore)
- Rogier van der Weyden (St. George and the Dragon)
- Marguerite Zorach (Christmas Mail)
There is a brief biography of each artist at the back of the book.
Learning Fun
The great thing about Gallery Ghost is that kids are learning a bit about each artist’s style as they hunt for discrepancies between the original painting and the painting tampered by ghostly artists. Kids are also learning to pay attention to detail and mark the changes on a chart to find out which artist painted the most changes.
Gallery Ghost would work well in a classroom (extra charts can be printed off) and in the homeschool setting. For just fun, kids will enjoy hunting through the masterpieces to figure out how the ghostly painting is different from the original masterpiece.
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