Draw the leading lines with a brush stroke of light gray. Study carefully the proportions of head, body, wings, tail, legs, and feet. When these are correctly drawn, add the dark and middle values, to show spotting.
"Life and Action" Shown in a Masterpiece.
Of all pictures in the world probably none are more interesting to us than those which tell us of the lives of people; of their work, their times of rest, their joys and their sorrows. You probably know many of the pictures of Millet, who painted the simple country life of French peasants, as they worked in the fields, watched their flocks, or cared for their children at home. Millet's pictures make us feel great respect for a man or woman who works.
The picture shown you on this page is from a painting called "Loading the Cart," by Anton Mauve, a native of Holland. He, like Millet, was a painter of quiet country landscapes and farm life. In this picture, notice how few are the shapes and masses he has cared to paint. He seems to have thought only of the big things—the sky, the ground, a clump of trees, a bending figure, a patient horse, a loaded cart. It is the artist's task to show us the beauty which lies in a simple country scene like this.
Anton Mauve was born in 1848 and died in 1888. He made his first exhibition of paintings in America at Philadelphia in 1876.
Home Exercises.
- Paint from the pose of a little girl dressed as Red Riding Hood.
- Make six brush drawings showing different positions of any pet animal that you have at home.
- Make a "skeleton" drawing in illustration of the following:
- "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick."
- Illustrate in a brush or outline drawing any one verse of "Old Mother Hubbard."
- Show in a drawing the game you like best to play.
- Show by a "skeleton" drawing the action expressed by the figure of the man in the picture on [page 42].