For children. Everyday life before us

Homes, school, trains and games in twelve paintings. For ages 8–12 and adults.

Washing, eating, going to school and meeting friends might all belong to your day. But the people in these paintings lived in different homes, used different things and had different opportunities. We will look at what changed in their lives and why artists chose these subjects.

This tour is for children around eight to twelve and adults looking with them. It has four themes with three paintings each. Choose one theme or any individual work. Questions in the stories help you notice details and compare the past with your own life.

At home in the morning

We begin with things used every day. An artist’s bedroom, a child’s bath and food preparation show how a household worked and who cared for it.

The Bedroom. Second version

Vincent van Gogh · September 1889

An artist’s room and why he painted it again.

The Child's Bath

Mary Cassatt · 1893

Care at home and Japanese prints seen in Paris.

The Milkmaid

Johannes Vermeer · c. 1660

Preparing food, kitchen objects and changes hidden beneath paint.

In the yard, at work, at school

We step into a yard, enter a grain barn and approach a classroom door. Children and adults had different tasks and opportunities. Two of these paintings connect with artists who knew village education firsthand.

Moscow Courtyard

Vasily Polenov · 1878

Children, a horse and outbuildings in central Moscow.

The Threshing Floor

Alexey Venetsianov · 1822–1823

Where bread begins and why a painter altered a real barn.

At the School Door

Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky · 1897

What school meant to an artist from a peasant family.

A walk and a seaside trip

Broad streets and railways changed city life. Caillebotte and Monet painted the new Paris in the same year, each in his own way. Cassatt’s beach shows children spending their free time. Made in different places, these pictures help us compare leisure and travel.

Paris Street; Rainy Day

Gustave Caillebotte · 1877

The new Paris, wet paving stones and passing pedestrians.

Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare

Claude Monet · 1877

How railways changed travel and gave a painter a new subject.

Children Playing on the Beach

Mary Cassatt · 1884

A simple children’s game and the long work of painting it.

Playing and learning together

Cards can become a house, chess can fill an evening, and a banjo can accompany new dance steps. We look at ways people occupied themselves at home. In the last room, a small photograph recalls major events beyond its walls.

The House of Cards

Jean Siméon Chardin · probably 1737

Play with familiar objects, shown at a major exhibition.

The Chess Players

Thomas Eakins · 1876

Friends, the artist’s father and traces of his training in France.

The Dancing Lesson

Thomas Eakins · 1878

Music at home and the memory of emancipation in the United States.

What we found in everyday life

A jug explained washing in the morning, a cart showed how a harvest moved, and a board identified a lesson. Objects alone were not enough. We also learned about Van Gogh’s home, Bogdanov-Belsky’s education, the rebuilding of Paris and events in America. Similar everyday activities can have different histories.

Each artist chose what to show. Vermeer removed objects, Cassatt changed children’s poses, and Monet returned to the station as its light changed. A painting tells us about people’s lives and about its maker’s work. Now choose an activity from your own day. Which three details would help someone a hundred years from now understand it in your drawing?