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Beautifully printed flashcards are much better than online flashcards (few interactions between students) or printable flashcards (print quality not good enough and expensive to print) to teach art history and appreciation… Unfortunately, they are also underutilized. It is very easy though to create games that use them and they can be compelling tools at school and at home. This is why I built this list – short but effective!
What printed art history flashcards are there and how to use them? There are 3 good ones available: “The Masterpiece Cards” (250 cards), “The Louvre Art Deck” (100 cards) and “Famous Paintings” (30 cards). Complemented with the 8 game rules I propose, they become excellent teaching tools.
This is why I propose 8 rules that I include in this post, which enable especially the two first flashcard sets to become even more potent tools to teach art history and appreciation. So, read on!
The Masterpiece Cards
★★★★★
The Masterpiece Cards
is an incredible collection of 250 flashcards (4″ by 6″). Each card reproduces one of the most important paintings in Western art history (and the choice of the artworks is well documented on the website and on the leaflet). On the back of each card, there is:
- an explanation of the meaning of the painting by an art history expert
- the name of the painter, their country of origin and time period lived
- the title, date, medium (i.e. “oil on canvas”) and dimensions of the painting
- the city and museum where the artwork is currently exhibited
The cards are very well made: high-quality printing that fully justifies the price tag (about 30 cents per card), and well thought out information on the cards.
I love this flashcard deck because it is so comprehensive:
- Periods covered range from Renaissance art through Pop art
- The paintings are from almost 100 different museums in Europe and North America
- 214 different painters are featured: Botticelli, Brueghel, Cézanne, da Vinci, Monet, Michelangelo, Picasso, Raphael, Rembrandt, van Gogh or Vermeer, among many others. This is really great for students as the deck makes it easy to focus on a given period or genre and still have a lot of representative paintings and variations in style.
- Having the museum (among 98), city (among 53) and country (among 13) where the artwork is exhibited enables:
- To prepare a city visit, especially for cities with many masterpieces such as Paris (31), London (31), New York (28), Washington DC (19), Florence (13), Madrid (11), Rome (9), Chicago (9), Philadelphia (8) or Vienna (7).
- To create a treasure hunt when you visit a specific museum with your children!
- The paintings are reproduced in full (better than showing part of the paintings as some art history games do because of the use of small cards)
I highly recommend the Masterpiece Cards for teachers who want their students to build an understanding of painting spanning many different periods.
One caveat though: the box is made with a very fragile, single flute corrugated board that does not withstand the weight of the 250 cards. As I am a publisher myself I can assure you that I would not use such a fragile material for this heavy box. You need to know that you will need to reinforce this box (laminate it completely for instance), to ensure that is will not be quickly torn and fall apart.
My Gift for You: 8 Rules to Enhance The “Masterpiece Cards” Flashcards Set
Here are 8 rules that I suggest you can use with this card series (all of them are based on classical and simple rule mechanisms that really work). They are not included in the box, so it is my little “gift” for you. They will transform this huge flashcard set onto a real game and make their use so much more interactive and effective in the classroom or at home.
War
In this version of “War”, players will learn about the dates, the names of the artists and the cities where the artworks are exhibited.
| Players | 2 to 8 |
| Age | 6+ |
| Objective | Win the most cards |
| Preparation | Keep about 50 cards from the 250 of the game – either selected randomly or according to time period, style of painting or artists you want the students to learn about (the exact number of cards is not important). Deal the cards one by one to all the players, faces up (the face that has the painting). Each player then has a stack of cards. |
| How to play | Each player turns up the card on top of his/her stack face down (showing the back of the cards with the information about the painting). If there are two players, each player puts two cards on the table, one on top of the other (only the top card is used to determine the winner). The player with the oldest painting takes all the cards (and puts them under his/her stack), except if there is another card done by the same artist or exhibited in the same city (both information are readily available on the card, so they are easy to check). In this case, each player puts a second card on top of the card he has already played. |
| End of game | Once one of the players does not have any card left, the players compare their stacks. The player with the most cards wins (this enables the game not to last too long). |
Variation: The player with the most recent artwork takes all the cards.
Variation: You can use the country where the artwork is exhibited instead of the city.
Note: You might want to take the card “Les Très Riches du Duc de Berry, February” out of the game, as having this card raises very much the probability to win the game.
Go Fish
In this version of “Go Fish”, players will learn specific characteristics of the artworks such as its artistic movement (cubism, rococo,…), genre (landscape, still life, etc.)
| Players | 2 to 5 players (but can be played up to 10) |
| Objective | Collect as many families as possible. A family of cards is a number of cards that share a common characteristic, for example: – Genre (history, portrait, everyday life, landscape) – Art movement (impressionism, cubism, pop art) – Exhibited in the same museum |
| Preparation | Keep about 50 cards from the 250 of the game (selected according to the genre, art movement of museums that defines the families and/or the periods you want to address). The exact number of cards is not important. Deal cards one by one for each player: – With 2 or 3 players: 7 cards – With 4 or 5 players: 5 cards – With 6 to 8 players: 4 cards – With 9 to 10 players: 3 cards The remaining cards are put on the table as a stack with the picture facing up. |
| How to play | Choose a player to start the game. The game will then turn. At his/her turn, the player: – If he/she does not have any card, draws one card from the stack – Chooses another player and asks for the cards of a family where he/she already has at least one card. (For instance “Do you have expressionist paintings?”. The player who is addressed: – Hands over all the cards requested (the cards of the family, including the one of the asking player are shown to ensure there is no mistake). In this case, the asking player can ask another player for another family if he/she can. – If he/she has none, they say “Go fish!” and the other player draws the top card of the stack and places it in his/her cards. In this case, the game turns to the next player. If the asking player gets all the cards of a family, he/she shows and places them on the table in front of him/her. |
| End of game | The game ends when all families have been won. The winner is the player with the most families. |
Tip: To make the game more easy to set up and play, it is better to make a list (on a spreadsheet that you will print) of the artworks with their corresponding families, as some of them are not directly mentioned on the cards themselves. This also enables you to print a list of all the artworks for each family. This way players can check if they have already collected all the paintings in a given family or if there is any missing. You might also put small color dots (or icons) on cards so as to check the genre and art movements more easily.
Chronoline
This game will enable players to build their sense of the chronology of the history of painting. Once the game is finished, the cards on the table will be organized in a chronological timeline (hence the name of the game, which is inspired by “Timeline”, a classic and very popular game by Asmodee).
| Players | 2 to 5 |
| Objective | Be the first to place all your cards on the table in the right chronological place. |
| Preparation | Put one card face down on the table, date visible. Deal 4 cards to each player, faces with the picture up (so that the players cannot see the dates of each art piece). Each player places the cards in front of him/her. Put the remaining cards on the table as a pile, pictures up. |
| How to play | Players take turns to play. At his/her turn, the player: – Plays one of his/her cards face down (painting visible) between two cards that are already on the table, so as to respect the chronological order of the paintings (older paintings are on the left). – Returns the card to check if the chronological placement is correct (with the dates). If the card was: – placed properly, it is left there, “date” side up, and the player’s turn is over. – not placed properly, it is returned to the box. The player draws a card from the remaining cards pile and places it in front of him/her picture side up next to his/her other cards. |
| End of game | The game ends when one of the players does not have any card left. He/she then wins the game. |
Tip: you can split the 250 cards to have several groups playing at the same time!
Mimic it
This game will draw the attention of the players to the composition, the characters and the general atmosphere of the paintings.
| Players | 3 to 20 |
| Objective | Guess which artwork is being mimicked. |
| Preparation | Split the players into 3 to 4 teams of 1 to 5 students. Put 20 paintings on tables and let the students study them for a few minutes. They can return the cards, and should try to remember the title and the composition of the painting. |
| How to play | Shuffle the cards. A team takes a card without showing it to the other teams and mimics the card without saying anything (this can be done by each player doing a separate mimicking, of by all of them doing a group mimic, for instance by attempting to reproduce the composition of the painting). The other teams try to find which artwork was mimicked. When a team guesses an artwork correctly, both teams win one point. The next teams then have to choose another artwork to mimic. |
| End of game | The game ends after 12 mimickings. |
Tip: some works of art will be more difficult to mimic, which is the reason why the teams mimic only 12 of the 20 available artworks.
Draw It
This game is excellent to:
- Foster collaboration between students
- Understand how to devise clear and precise instructions
- Learn to avoid misunderstandings
- Think about the composition of artworks
- Improve quick sketching ability
| Players | 2 |
| Objective | Draw a sketch of the artwork without seeing it. |
| Preparation | Put a cache between the players so that the player who will give the instructions cannot see what the other player draws, and the player who draws cannot see the artwork. Player N°1 draws a card from the game and keeps it hidden from the other player. The other player has a sheet of paper and a pencil. |
| How to play | Player N°1 gives a drawing instruction. For instance “Draw a wide horizontal line in the middle of the paper”. Player N°2 draws according to the instruction, without further help from player N°1. When Player N°2 has finished, Player N°1 gives another drawing instruction. The two players continue until player N°1 considers that the sketch is complete. |
| End of game | The two players compare the original artwork with the sketch. |
Find It
This game will increase the facts that the players know about the artworks being played during the game, and make them think about how you can categorize artworks.
| Players | 2 to 15 |
| Objective | Guess artworks by asking questions with “Yes/No” answers. |
| Preparation | Choose 20 cards. The choice of cards can be according to your pedagogical objective (for instance only renaissance artworks). One player is the game master. The other players are split into 2 or more teams. The players study the 20 artworks for a few minutes (they can look at both sides). Then the cards are given to the game master who hides them. |
| How to play | The game master draws a card, hiding it from the other players (for instance he is behind a curtain or another cache that avoids that the other players can see the card). The game turns between teams. At its turn, the team asks one question to the game master. The game master answers either “Yes” or “No” (no other answer is permitted). He can look at the card to find the correct answer. If a team thinks it has guessed the artwork, it can tell the name of the artwork, or if they have forgotten the name of the artwork they can give the name of the artist and explain the subject of the painting. If they have guessed correctly, they win the card. Each team can give a maximum of 3 guesses. Once a team has guessed the artwork (of the teams have asked 15 questions in total and cannot guess the artwork), the game master draws another artwork and makes the players guess it. |
| End of game | The game continues until 15 artworks have been drawn. The team with the most correct guesses (or cards won) wins the game. |
Tip: you can make the game more difficult by increasing the number of artworks.
Quiz
This game will develop the capability of the players to observe and analyze paintings quickly in order to remember their main features. It will also develop their capability to read descriptions quickly and remember the main facts about them.
| Players | 3 to 5 |
| Objective | Answer as many questions as possible concerning an artwork. |
| Preparation | Select 20 cards from the game that you want the players to study. The other players will try to answer his/her questions. |
| How to play | The game turns. At each turn, one player is the game master. The game master draws a card and puts it on the table for 20 seconds each side. During that time, the other players try to remember as much as possible from the artwork. Then the game master: – Hides the card from the other players – Asks 5 specific questions about the card. They can be about the contents of the painting or about the explanations on the back. For each question, the first player to give the right answer scores a point. If less than 3 questions are answered, the questions are considered too difficult and the game master loses one point. He/she will not ask too easy questions as he/she does not want the other players to win too many points. |
| End of game | When the 20 cards have been used, the player with the most points wins. |
Tip: Here is a list of potential questions to ask:
- In which museum is this artwork exhibited?
- What is the genre of this painting?
(You might provide a list of existing genres to chose from, for example, landscape, abstraction, genre painting, nude, mythology…, and provide a written list that enables to check) - What is the art movement of this painting?
(same remark) - In which century was this artwork painted?
- How many characters are there in the painting?
- Is the main subject facing left or right?
(for portraits) - What is the name of the painter?
- What is the title of the painting?
- What is the dominant color in the painting?
Match It
This game will help the players to understand the common features between artworks, thus developing better observation and capability to categorize.
| Players | 2 to 4 |
| Objective | get rid of all of your cards |
| Preparation | Chose several aspects (at least 3) of paintings that you want your students to work on, for example, subject, function, art movement/genre, artist, type of composition, shapes in the artwork, colors… Deal 10 cards to each player. Put one card on the table (front side) which will start the pile. Players can at any time look at the back of the card to check for the available information. |
| How to play | The game turns. At his/her turn, the player (if he can) draws one card from his/her game, puts it on top of the pile and explains one characteristic that matches between the two cards (for instance, the two cards are from the same artist, or belong to the same “Impressionist” genre, or are both portraits). The other players can accept or reject the move but they must provide an explanation of why they refuse. Then it is the next player’s turn. |
| End of game | The game is finished once one of the players has put all his/her cards on the pile of cards. |
Why This Flashcard Set Really Works
You might think that I am going crazy with the “Masterpiece Cards” flashcard set. I believe that this card set has a lot of potential!
This is due to three factors:
- The cards have real information on them.
- Their size makes them relatively easy to manipulate but large enough to see the details of the painting.
- Having 250 cards enables you to select a subset of cards for the theme or period you want to study
The cards would have been even better if the genre of the painting (Impressionism, Baroque, Mannerism…) was mentioned on the cards themselves, and if some color coding had been made to facilitate the sorting of the cards. This would have made the cards even easier to use from a gaming point of view, but this is really not a big deal compared to all the qualities of the card set.
For instance, as they are very diverse, you can also use them for “breaking the ice” between people who meet for the first time (in a training session for instance). Ask each trainee to chose a card that corresponds to his/her personality or personal experiences and then ask each player to explain to everybody why he/she has chosen that card. This can work even for a relatively large group as the cards are larger than playing cards and the deck has so many cards to chose from.
The Louvre Art Deck (Anja Grebe)
★★★★☆
This is a really very high-quality card deck of paintings from the Louvre Museum. Aside from being well printed and large enough, the deck is also very good because:
- There are 100 cards (with 100 artworks, including 90 paintings, and 10 sculptures and other artworks). You really get “value for your money”
- The choice of artworks is very good. This is made possible by the fact that “Le Louvre” has the largest collection of paintings in the world
- The artworks are printed on the full size of the cards, which makes them more beautiful.
- The back of each card has a very interesting text by art historian Anja Grebe that gives you clues to analyze the masterpiece; for instance, what to look for when viewing the painting, information about the techniques used, biographical information, the name of the painting, artist and more.
I highly recommend this gorgeous card deck, which is really not expensive!
By the way, the rules I proposed for “The Masterpiece Cards” also work for “The Louvre Art Deck”.
And if you plan to visit “Le Louvre” in Paris, this game will provide you a great introduction for your visit.
So often people visit museums and just look at the artworks without being able to really appreciate them fully because they do not have any background information. Often times, we have limited time during a trip to a museum and it is not so easy to read the information provided in the museum or listen to the audio guide that they provide.
The Vatican Art Deck (Anja Grebe)
★★★☆☆
By the way, Anja Grebe has also authored a second similar card deck that you might check out: The Vatican Art Deck: One Hundred Masterpieces. It is very good as well, but the collection of artworks is, of course, less diverse and oriented towards religious art.
It would be nice to have some more of these from other major museums over the world! 🙂
Famous Paintings (Usborne)
★★★★☆
This 30 card flashcard set is intended for kids (I would recommend from 5 to 10 year-olds, even if they are technically usable for younger children). The choice of artworks is good for whatever age but the text on the back of the cards is not intended for older students.
The set has lots of positive aspects:
- Cards are large (4″x6″), well-printed, thick and with rounded corners for easier manipulation
- Artworks are adapted to the targeted age range: understandable by everyone, and among the most well-known paintings in the world (30 different artists spanning from the renaissance to modern times)
- Reasonable price
- Information on the back of the card includes:
- The artist
- The title, date, and medium of the painting
- Where it was painted and in which museum it is exhibited
- A descriptive text which is easy to understand for children and gives elements to look for in the painting
So I highly recommend this flashcard set as well!
Art History Cardgames and Playing Card Games
There are other options than flashcards. Card games are more practical for dynamic play and for rules where you manipulate many cards.
There are a lot of art history card games (with dedicated cards and with playing cards) available. Please check my two following posts that give you all the information about them:
- “15 Art History Card Games For Schools And Families” shows you all the available card games, classifying them into “Games about famous paintings”, “Games about famous artists and movements” and “Art history knowledge-based games”
- “18 Art History Playing Cards Games for Schools and Families” shows you all the standard playing cards that have artworks on them (only decks where each card features a different artwork are considered, not the ones where artworks are used only for decorating the back of the cards or the box.
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