My Mom took me to the St. Louis Art Museum regularly from a very early age- the first time I recall being wanting to see an Egyptian mummy I heard they had, but found it disappointing. But by the end of the trip I had found something that has forever stuck in my head, a painting called “The Captive Charger.” It’s a beautiful painting and in person will knock you out... though as a kid I thought it was weird to have a horse with a jaguar or leopard skin on it being led away by American Indians.
On another visit - still a grade schooler- I was captivated by a painting by George Caleb Bingham. On one wall there was this huge painting [well, it seemed huge to me] called “The Jolly Flatboatmen In Port.”
As it happens there was an exhibition of his work there this month and one of the components of the exhibit is for kids- there’s pencils and tracing paper and graphite paper which they or parents can show children how to use, so the kids can trace out a copy of their choice of one of his sketches for themselves.
There’s also a downloadable app of the exhibit so people can read up on pieces they like.
Needless to say the St. Louis Art Museum has a much more mature view of having children in art museums than the guy in this article, though they of course would be quick to chaten any parents as irresponsible as these that let their kids destroy art. Some children are after all, future patrons, even if others are future felons.
Looking it up to refresh my memory, it wasn’t the horse with the jaguar skin, it was one of the Indians.
It made me look up the range of the jaguar when we got home.