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 III

you are giving a child a cake, it adds nothing to his enjoyment to tell him that it came from an expensive caterer, that it contains certain ingredients and was made by certain rules, or that it will contribute to his nourishment. If it is good, he eats it and wants more, and your object is accomplished. The careful mother, however, must be sure that the cake comes from a trustworthy source, and is composed of wholesome materials, and if she is of the domestic sort, she knows pretty nearly how it was made. So in the matter of pictures: one need not worry the child by didactic explanations in regard to the artist or his art, converting his pleasure into a “lesson.” Yet all that teacher and mother can learn about the making of the picture will enable them the better to choose those pictures which will foster the child’s love of art. The critical knowledge, which increases so much our own aesthetic enjoyment, may little by little be imparted to the child as occasion offers. The more unconsciously he absorbs such instruction, the better. The art of teaching at its highest point is an art of concealing art.

How, then, is a work of art produced? By a mere haphazard process? Assuredly not. In the first place, the mere mechanical achievement of reproducing a