Mae's Real Stories

When I was a little girl we sometimes went to the St.Louis Art Museum. My mother often showed us books or magazines with famous art works shown in them. I liked the picture shown above of a princess named Margharita. A Spanish artist named Velazquez made this picture. A framed copy of it hung on the wall of the bedroom that Elaine and I shared.


One time our family went to see a very famous picture named "The Man with the Golden Helmet" (above) at the Art Museum. The picture was only there for a short time, and my mother explained that it was very special to see it. Recently I visited in Berlin, Germany, and I saw it again in a museum there. I still think it is wonderful.

Vermeer was a very wonderful painter. He painted the next two pictures. The first one shows a geographer, that is, a man who makes and studies maps. The second shows a woman standing at a window.


One of the most famous paintings in the world is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The real painting is in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Copies of it, including many silly copies, are everywhere.

When Evelyn saw the real Mona Lisa for the first time, she was very disappointed. "That's the most famous painting in the world?" she asked. "It's boring!"

After that, I started to show her silly pictures that people had made that looked a little like Mona Lisa and also many things that have a copy of Mona Lisa on them. Since everyone knows what Mona Lisa looks like, everyone can laugh at a silly picture of someone like her. I have a lot of cards, advertisements, games, and other things with Mona Lisa on them. Here is one of the silliest things I have: a rubber duckie that looks like Mona Lisa.

Labels: Mona Lisa