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THE GAME OF PICTURE-POSING
Of many delightful ways of familiarizing our children with good art, the game of picture-posing is one which captivates the child’s fancy at once. It is an attempt to “act out” or reproduce a famous picture. The child “plays” he is the figure in the picture, and assumes the same pose and gesture to the best of his ability. The game is a somewhat modernized version of one of the most popular of old-time amusements, the tableau vivant. In days when most of our pleasures were home-made, “tableaux” were next in favor to amateur theatricals. They were a favorite pastime in stormy days indoors, when we invented our own subjects as we went along. The multiplication of children’s amusements has relegated this fashion to the background, but it is now being revived in new form. The idea of reproducing famous masterpieces has usually been associated with the more ambitious efforts of public entertainments. To adopt it as a children’s game is a comparatively new departure, just as it is a new thing for children to get masterpieces in penny prints. The plan is well worth working out both in the home and the school.
The theory is perfectly simple. What could make children look at a picture more attentively than the suggestion that they are to reproduce the action of
