I enjoyed this piece and am always happy to see articles about homeschooling on Steemit! I have followed and hope you write more. I write about art education and children as well, and hope you might check out some of the posts on my blog.
I am interested in the Charlotte Mason approach and had not heard much about the specifics of art instruction in that mode of homeschooling. I really like to think of art as a visual means of expressing ideas and am not sure my small children have the attention span to explore the ideas of one artist for a whole term.
Next year we will do three art units, one on landscape (to mesh with our explorer theme), one on mother-sculptures (to mesh with our indigenous and subsistence living theme). My plan is to take 10 pieces and examine the ideas that drove the creators.
I think Audobon captures a moment in time when people really believed in the patient cataloguing of all of the wonders of the world. There is a hope and optimism in that type of work. While technically brilliant, he is not the most interesting artist to me. Remington, on the other hand, is a classic storyteller in the tradition of the great renaissance painters. His works really capture a lot of ideas about the American West.
Good luck!