Found: Art Book for Children, The Fifer by Manet painting on cover, read in the 90's

I had a book of Western (as in the Western/European tradition, not Cowboys) Art for children. I had this in the 90s/late 80s, although it could have been published earlier.

The cover was blue (?) and featured Manet's The Fifer. I only remember three paintings in the books, for sure. One was An Old Man and his Grandson, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Broadway Boogie Woogie by Piet Mondrian, and The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau.

I've searched for this book many times, but I fear the title was so generic that I can't find it. Any attempt to search for Western art leads to cowboys. Any help would be appreciated!

The two I remember vividly from my 90s childhood (and blame for my art history degree) are Paint and Painting and Visiting the Art Museum. Neither fit your description although some of the same paintings are featured. But clicking through the LibraryThing recommendations for those might be a good starting point for your search.

>2 rarm: Thanks for those!

I tried LT's AI search (it's not bad for cover images) and got Guide to the Musee d'Orsay which has that painting on some of the member-uploaded covers. It doesn't look like it's specifically for children but it was published in 1991; could it be that?

Musical Instruments in Art seems spot-on as far as the cover! And 3 out of the four artworks you mentioned are music-related (not so much the Ghirlandaio).

The Story of Painting: From Cave Painting to Modern Times also has The Fifer on one of the member-uploaded covers.

The History of Western Painting: A Young Person's Guide doesn't seem to have the right cover but the title is so close that I'll mention it anyway--you can check recommendations.

I'm pretty sure it's The Story of Painting--I just checked it out on openlibrary and all the paintings you mention are in there. You can borrow it here: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1719858W/The_story_of_painting_from_cave_paintin...

>7 keachachu: That is it! You don't know how long I've been looking for this book, thank you so much.

>6 keachachu: Thanks for these! The Story of Painting was it!

>5 rarm: That is almost exactly what the cover looked like! The Fifer must be a popular choice for book covers. It turns out it was The Story of Painting.

>4 keachachu: Thanks so much for checking! It turns out it was The Story of Painting.