The story of the Dutch painter known as Rembrandt. It describes how he liked to paint people, and how he found subjects for his paintings. As he got older, Rembrandt enjoyed painting two people in particular--two people who were very special to him. Rembrandt had some hard times, but he never gave up painting. In his works he expressed his passions, his love for others, and all the sweetness and bitterness of life. Contains biographical information...

Shows how the artist Henri Matisse used bold colors to create strikingly beautiful art. The story follows a colorless snail on a quest to find its own colors. After discovering a number of Matisse's paintings, the snail magically takes on a range of colors from the artworks. Matisse really did create an artwork called, The Snail. He made it in his old age, when he could no longer hold a paintbrush for long. Instead of painting a snail, he made a picture...

A never-before-published collection of stories from Kathleen Collins. These short stories, discovered only recently, highlight Collins's masterfully blend of the personal issues-- race, gender, family, and sexuality-- with the ordinary moments that shape our lives. Also known as an artist and filmmaker, her stories create full-bodied men, women, and children who justify their lives while integrating the African American experience without becoming...

Jim Crace's imaginative first book, seven linked stories, now available in a deluxe paperback edition in Ecco's The Art of the Story Series. Jim Crace's internationally acclaimed first book explores the tribes and communities, conflicts and superstitions, flora and fauna of a wholly spellbinding place: an imaginary seventh continent. In these seven tales Crace travels a strange and wonderful landscape: "Talking Skull" takes the reader to a tiny agricultural...

French artist Jean Francois Millet was deeply moved by the ordinary life of the people in Barbizon, who were poor yet always maintaining a heart of gratitude. This story aims to show what he saw and painted by telling a story of young girl pleading with her busy parents to go on a picnic. Ages 7+

Describes the life of the Flemish artist, who is well-known for his paintings of everyday events.