THE GENTLEMAN AND THE KITCHEN MAID

Scene: an elegant museum exhibit where a dapper gentleman (by Frans Hals or Rembrandt?) has long gazed affectionately from his frame at a wholesome lass with a basket of apples (typical Vermeer). Prim burghers in the room's other paintings disparage the inappropriate attachment, but an art student is intrigued. Remarking on their plight, she copies both lovers into a single new composition from which they can look happily into her room at home, where the other paintings are ``quite modern and open- minded.'' Just in time, too: in the museum, the kitchen maid has been moved, leaving her detractors to turn their disdain on a rowdy group scene. The disarming tale brings the 17th-century art to life in an original manner that's much abetted by Nolan's straightforwardly realistic paintings, which catch their piquancy in an appealingly informal style. Share this pre-museum treat with the art teacher. (Picture book. 5-8)