I used some of the books from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists series to teach a co-op class of 6-8 year old students. We paired each book with an art project (painting on plaster of Paris as frescoes, painting each other’s portraits, etc.), and the kids loved it.
We also used the books a few times when my kids were younger, and we watched the dvd’s which were available from the library. They are exactly like the books and are quite entertaining as well. I just found images of some pictures in the book (the artists’, not the book illustrations!) and printed them out to use for picture study.