In this lesson,
students learn to distinguish portraits from other forms of art and
develop their own criteria for analyzing portraits.
1. What is a
portrait?
The teacher first
introduces portraiture as an art form by showing both examples and non-examples
such as landscapes and still-life art forms. The teacher facilitates
the discussion by asking students to describe what is unique about a
portrait, and the class contributes to a list of those characteristics
on the board or chart paper. The teacher can also solicit student input
about prior experiences at museums or special exhibits.
2. Why do artists
paint portraits?
The teacher brainstorms
with the students why artists create portraits and uses different examples
of portraits with possible stories associated with them.
The teacher might
show a well-known portrait like that of George Washington. The portrait
of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (The Lansdowne portrait)
will be on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston until June 16,
2002. The teacher begins the discussion with students about what they
know about Washington from the portrait.
From the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Web site: (http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hall/lands.htm):
George
Washington brought the gift of his cast-iron character to the turbulence
of early American life. "This Vesuvius of a man," as a biographer
described him, who was threatened always by the eruption of his own
fierce irritability, achieved a serene and compelling dignity of presence
that portraitists transformed into the very image of republican majesty.
In 1796, when Gilbert Stuart painted this portrait of presidential calm,
he falsified the moment but caught the mood of the age. Washington,
who had been the nation's unanimous choice for commander of the army,
for President of the Constitutional Convention, and twice for President
of the United States, was at the moment harassed, in his last full year
in office, by the opposing claims of the Hamiltonians and the Jeffersonians,
and by the controversy surrounding John Jay's treaty with Great Britain.
Stuart, however, portrayed the Washington who endured to become the
symbol of national permanence above the squabble of politics.
Gilbert Stuart painted this celebrated "Lansdowne" portrait
in his Germantown, Pennsylvania, studio in 1796. It was commissioned
by William Bingham, United States senator from Pennsylvania, and his
wife, for the Earl of Shelburne, later Marquis of Lansdowne, who had
defended the rebellious colonies in Parliament.
Resources for
this portrait:
3. What questions
can I answer?
As the teacher asks
the questions below, he/she can write the questions on the board so
that these same questions may be used to develop a list of criteria
for students to use for the next lessons.
These discussion
questions can be altered or added to, or merely used as a springboard
for class discussion.
Questions might
include:
Subject
- Who is the
person in the portrait?
- How old is
the person?
- Can you tell
when the person lived?
- Does anything
that the person is wearing give you any clues? (Clothing, jewelry,
makeup, hat, etc.)
- Besides the
person himself/herself, are there any other objects in the portrait
that give the viewer any clues? (objects that the person is holding,
objects that are in the background, props such as chairs, tables,
etc.)
- Does the way
the person is standing or sitting tell you anything about them?
When, where
and why
- What does the
picture tell you about the time that the subject lived?
- Can you guess
what country it was painted in?
- Can you guess
whom it was painted for?
- Do you think
this is a self-portrait?
- What makes
this portrait unique?
Feelings and
Emotions
- How does the
portrait make you feel?
- Are you interested
in the portrait?
- Do you like
the way the artist has arranged the picture?
- Do you like
the way the artist has shown details?
- Can you predict
if a male or female artist created this portrait?
- How do you
think the artist felt about the person he/she painted?
- How do you
think the person in the picture is feeling or what is their mood?
How can you tell?
Set Up
- How has the
artist arranged the portrait?
- Do you think
the person posed for this portrait?
- Where is the
person looking (at the viewer, away, at something else)?
- If there is
more than one person in the picture, are they touching? What could
this mean?
- What does the
background and the objects in the background of the picture tell
us?
- How much space
has the artist left around the person and how is it used?
- What view of
the person is pictured?
- 3/4 view
- full frontal
- profile
- full body
Style of the
Portrait:
- Is the portrait
realistic (looks absolutely real) or is it abstract (the artist
was thinking about something real, but altered the visual reality
of the subject in some way).
Art Elements:
Shape, Line and Space
- What shapes
can you see in this portrait?
- Are the lines
in the portrait straight or curved?
- How often does
the artist repeat certain colors or shapes within the portrait
4. What questions
can I ask?
The students and
teacher then select questions from this list of questions to develop
into a set of criteria that will be used to analyze and understand the
portraits in the following lessons. Criteria can be recorded individually,
in small groups, or as a whole class.
One way to incorporate
technology into this activity is to choose a student to record the criteria
in a computer program such as Microsoft Word on a computer attached
to a projector or television monitor so that the entire class can see
it as it is being developed. The document can then be saved to disks
for small group activities or emailed to students.