The Sleeping Gypsy

The kids love it.

This is a well-known painting of a gypsy girl sleeping in the desert by a stream, and a lion approaches her. It was painted by the French artist Henry Rousseau who lived in the late 1800's and died in 1910. This picture hangs in the MOMA where you can see it.This book imagines the story behind this mysterious painting. The author first saw the painting when he was 8 or 9 and was fascinated by the mystery behind this picture. So, he imagined how the picture might have come to be. The artist is known for his "fantastical jungle scenes" and had no formal training.This is an imaginative take on the painting. I like books which interest children in art and art history. This book accomplishes that. The illustrations suit the painting and have a similar feel to them. That's splendid. A class could write their own story about what is going on in this painting as a creative writing exercise. Or bring in lots of interesting paintings to the class, and let the children choose one which interests them and write a story about it. Young children like fine art. When I was a headmistress of a private school, we had a poster on foam core of a famous painting and titled it "Masterpiece of the Week". The children learned the names of the painting and artist, and answered questions about it. One five-year-old stunned her parents when she was on the elevator in NYC, and saw a poster of a Matisse exhibit and said to her parents, "Look Mommy and Daddy. There's a Matisse!" Young children can become excited about fine art, and it trains their artistic awareness, appreciation and sensibilities.