Page:How to show pictures to children (IA howtoshowpictur00hurl).pdf/34

 As soon as the child is eapable of grasping more than one object at a time, or, in other words, of relating the various elements of a composition, he progresses from the single object, or unit, to the story picture. His pleasure is now of a higher order than mere recognition or curiosity: it is the awakening of the imagination. This faculty once aroused needs only the right touch to transport him into a paradise of joy. The good story picture is the great desideratuum. This may be illustrative of a text or anecdotic in itself. In either case his lively fancy finds plenty of exercise in reading the story into the picture or the picture into the story. The story subjects he likes best at first are those drawn from his own little world, but he soon grows to new interests, As kindergartners so well understand, children enjoy seeing things done, and those pictures are ever popular which portray the primitive tasks of life like spinning, knitting, sewing, churning butter and feeding hens, sowing the seed and gathering the harvest. Other subjects follow in due order, and go far towards widening the horizon of the child’s mind.

There are certain classes of subjects to which the child remains long indifferent. He has no use for adult portraits, generally speaking, unless they are connected with some story. They are all very well to vary the monotony of a history lesson, but taken by themselves, they are dull and uninteresting. This is natural enough. What normal, wide-awake child enjoys sitting in a company of silent grown-ups?

Landscape art pure and simple does not interest