The Picture Lady

January 11, 1982

I am a fifth grader at Ruth Dunn Elementary School. I would like to tell you about our school's Picture Lady Program.

The Picture Lady Program is run by a group of mothers at our school. The mother of one of our classmates comes to our classroom once a month with a painting. This mother tells who the artist of the painting was (or is), when and where he or she lived, and many other such things.

In October the Picture Lady brought some small pictures of Rembrandt's paintings. With these pictures she brought (a Monitor) article on Rembrandt. She explained about how van Rijn painted an honest self-portrait instead of an overly handsome one.

Right before she left she asked us to do our own self-portrait. I found this extremely difficult because although I knew it was supposed to be honest, I didn't want to look ugly or bad. This helped me to appreciate Rembrandt's work.