"Large Sea Street" by Joseph-Jean Charlemagne

Joseph-Jean Charlemagne painting this view of Saint Petersburg, “Large Sea Street” with the building of the headquarters of the Chevalier Guard Regiment. At first glance, it is a very stiff and simple picture of just a street and buildings but taking a step closer and a more in depth look, the detail within the picture is outstanding. With the consideration of all the detail, this picture would be a great one to bring into the Math classroom when discussing shapes. Just look at the road itself, it is made up of a repetition of circles. Not only can you talk about that but the detail within these circles. Each one is a specific size allowing for there to be as little of a gap possible for the horse carts to be able to go down the street with ease. The buildings are made up solely of different shapes. Form cylinders to rectangles, the importance of what shapes can do to make up a city is presented in this picture. Student tend to spend a lot of time wondering and asking how math relates to the real world and creating an activity, such as having them pick out as many shapes as possible from the building and then discussing how every building is just made up of a combination of shapes would allow the students to connect more closely to the material.
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