To get the 4th grade all primed for our trip to the Issabella Stewart Gardner Museum I did a discussion on Rembrandt. The Dutch artist was born next to a windmill and his father was a miller. The drawing above is of his house. We also talked about the style in which Rembrandt would paint. His dramatic use of lighting was unusual at the time. A great example is seen in a self portrait above.
The class then worked on chalk pastel drawings of a windmill following my direction and using the extreme lighting style of Rembrandt. It was messy, but I think they liked it.