CMP Review 2025-01-02

January 2, 2025

When my youngest son was approaching high school age, I decided to plan a picture study rotation for him that would progress chronologically from the Renaissance to the modern era. One artist per term, three terms per year, from Titian to Mary Cassatt. We’ve passed the halfway mark and it’s been a thrill not only to study beautiful works of art, but also to experience in a living way the history of art itself.

We’re almost done with our study of John Constable (1776–1837), and last term we studied the works of J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851). We read about how Constable saw sketches by a friend of Turner. We compared the styles of the artists. We saw how they seemed to form links in a chain.

One joy of picture study that never grows old is going to an art museum and finding works by the artists we just studied. At the National Gallery of Art we made a beeline for the room filled with Turner’s pieces. What a joy to recognize paintings by Constable nearby.

In her book Ourselves, Charlotte Mason speaks of how Mansoul can be filled with “galleries of precious and beautiful pictures painted by the great artists of all countries.” The National Gallery is not the only place that has works by Turner and Constable side-by-side. The same can be found in the gallery of my son’s heart. And mine too.

@artmiddlekauff