For children. Everyday life before us
Homes, school, trains and games in twelve paintings. For ages 8–12 and adults.
Art for children
A family art tour about everyday life. Stories for children around 8–12, details to zoom into and a free audio guide.
Paintings in this selection
12 artworks. Open a painting to read its story and explore its details.
Vincent van GoghThe Bedroom. Second version
September 1889
Mary CassattThe Child's Bath
1893
Johannes VermeerThe Milkmaid
c. 1660
Vasily PolenovMoscow Courtyard
1878
Alexey VenetsianovThe Threshing Floor
1822–1823
Nikolai Bogdanov-BelskyAt the School Door
1897
Gustave CaillebotteParis Street; Rainy Day
1877
Claude MonetArrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare
1877
Mary CassattChildren Playing on the Beach
1884
Jean Siméon ChardinThe House of Cards
probably 1737
Thomas EakinsThe Chess Players
1876
Thomas EakinsThe Dancing Lesson
1878Start with the family tour about how people lived before us. It connects familiar experiences—home, work and play—with lives depicted in paintings. You can pause after a single work, hide the text and explore the image together.
Artists
Related art tours
Russian life. Estate, city and village
How nineteenth-century painters depicted work, wealth, education and changes in everyday life.
Early Impressionism. Paris 1860–1879
The Salon, the first independent exhibition, railway stations, studios and leisure on the Seine.
World classics. Altar, palace, exhibition
Familiar paintings and the people for whom they were made.
How to explore the paintings
On an artwork page, choose “Explore the painting”. Zoom in, move around the image and hide the text to see the details. Turn on the audio guide to hear the story, or use autoplay to move between passages.
Zoom quality depends on the available reproduction. Each artwork page lists its collection, story sources and image rights. Access is free and no account is required.