We just read this great children's book called, Matisse the King of Color by Laurence Anholt. While you may already be familiar with Matisse, his famous cut outs, his beautiful, playful paintings, his outrageous use of color, what you may not know is that he also had a very big heart....
In 1948 he commissioned and designed a chapel for his friend and former nurse, Sister Jacques-Marie, whose convent was too poor to have a chapel. At first the sisters were appalled by the work he was doing, the chapel was in no way traditional, but as time went on his vision and generosity seems to have won them over. Today you can visit this Chapelle du Rosaire du Vence in France.
For more on the chapel - check out this video by the BBC to get a glimpse into this beautiful work of art and when you're finished, scroll down for a lesson plan!
Now to the fun part, after watching this video and/or reading the book with your child you can get to work on some cool art projects. Today I have two suggested activities for you: Matisse stained glass and Matisse wall drawings.
