I've Just Seen a Face: Portraits

Introduction

The day the photographer comes to school to take portrait photos is always quite a day, filled with irrepressible excitement and barely suppressed anxiety. When the pictures arrive, they are shared, traded, talked about and sometimes hidden. We are all protective of our own image.

Image has always been important to the powerful. Their portraits have traditionally been designed to impress us with the gravity of the subject. But changing sensibilities and media have tended to introduce more intimacy and spontaneity.

Creating visual and literary representations of people has proven to be an enduring human activity. Help your students examine this compulsion of ours to capture the human in image and words.

Guiding Question:

Learning Objectives

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

• If desired, a model set of criteria for Reading a Photograph is available from the EDSITEment resource Harlem 1900-1940: An African-American Community.



• The "Education" section at the EDSITEment-reviewed National Portrait Gallery has a marvelous collection of teacher's packets full of ideas for examining several genres of visual representation.



• The EDSITEment-reviewed The Digital Classroom offers a series of worksheets for analyzing primary source documents, including a photograph analysis worksheet, that you may wish to use or adapt to help students develop criteria for analyzing portraits.

Suggested Activities

Lesson 1: Portraits of Children: Developing Criteria
Lesson 2: Status Portraits: Using the Criteria
Lesson 3: Americans Portraits in History: Using the Criteria

Additional Activities:
Lesson 4: Portraits in Pictures and Words
Lesson 5: Subjects and Their Work
Lesson 6: Self-portraits

Extending the Lesson

Lesson 1 Portraits of Children

Briefly share and discuss some portraits of students taken as school photos. Why are these pictures taken every year? Why do some students dress up for these portraits while others choose to be photographed looking as they do every day? Why do some students (or their parents) purchase pictures? What do they do with them? If they are given to relatives and friends and kept by parents, what image of the student are such people hoping the picture will project? (In other words, some would be disappointed if the picture showed the student doing something silly. On the other hand, they don't want the picture portraying the student in some artificially serious pose, either.)

In this lesson, students will try to analyze what image of the children is being projected in some archival portraits.

Students may be surprised to learn that portraits of children have been made for hundreds of years. After looking at students' school photos, share some examples of portraits of children with the class. The following list presents samples you can use, listed in chronological order (all available through the EDSITEment-reviewed website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City):

• Portrait of a Boy, Egyptian 2nd century C.E.; Roman period.
  Background information and small image
  Larger image



• Portrait of a Boy With a Falcon, Wallerant Vaillant (Flemish, 1623-1677).
  Background information and small image
  Larger image

• A child holding a baby alligator, Oklawaha River, Florida, from the EDSITEment resource American Memory



• Boy with issue of Saturday Evening Post; to find this image, search by title in the EDSITEment resource American Memory.



• Cajun girl near Crowley, La., available from American Memory



• Child on horseback, available through a link from American Memory



• Daniel Crommelin Verplanck, 1771: Background information and small image or larger image available from the EDSITEment resource The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Explore and Learn.



• Girl with Flower, available through a link from American Memory



• Navajo Captive, available through a link from American Memory



• Paiute Indian Girl with Doll in Cradleboard, available through a link from American Memory



• Portrait of a Girl and Her Horse, available from American Memory



• Portrait of boy soldier, available from American Memory



• Santa Clara Indian, available from American Memory



• Unidentified Indian child, Crow, seated, full length, available from American Memory

Lesson 2 The Good, the Bad and ... Status in Portraits

Why would an important person want a portrait of him or herself? Portraits can help project an image of high status for the subject. But, portraits can also deflate that status. This lesson focuses on the image a portrait conveys.

Begin by passing out a list of the criteria the students designed for looking at a portrait. Review the criteria.

The following list of possible images, organized in alphabetical order, represents portraits of famous Americans who were selected because students are unlikely to recognize them. Distribute an appropriate number of portraits. Working individually, in pairs or in small groups, students analyze one of the portraits below (or any the teacher finds) by applying their own criteria. Students are to hypothesize about the person (status, wealth, place in history and so on) and the portrait's purpose (meant to elevate the subject's status, to deflate the subject's status, unbiased, etc.).

(Note: All of the portraits below are available through the EDSITEment-reviewed website National Portrait Gallery unless otherwise noted.)

• A studio portrait of Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt "Baby Doe" Tabor, wife of millionaire Horace Tabor; she wears a fur coat and hat, and is dusted with fake snow (available from American Memory).



• Caricature of President Truman by political cartoonist John Chase. A small image with information and a full-page image are available from American Memory.



• John Brown led a revolt in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, to end slavery by force; background information.



• John Calhoun, an eloquent U.S. senator with a reputation for having an explosive temper, believed strongly in the South's right to continue slavery; background information.



• Joseph Cinque led the Amistad Slave Mutiny; background information.



• General George A. Custer became a national hero after his death, despite his military blunders, at least in part due to images like the one provided here (available from American Memory). Background information available from the EDSITEment-reviewed New Perspectives on the West.



• Jesse and Frank James wear suits and pose with revolvers in this studio portrait created between 1866 and 1876 (available from American Memory).

Lesson 3 American Portraits in History

Throughout this unit, students have used their own pre-determined criteria to analyze various portraits and hypothesize information about the subject. Now, students will research a famous American for whom they also have a portrait.

Begin by conducting a model discussion of a portrait of an American with whom the students are familiar. For example, analyze, as a class, a portrait of Thomas Jefferson created when he was President. (The portrait is available from the EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory, with background information available from the National Portrait Gallery, also reviewed by EDSITEment.)

Have students use the class criteria to guide the discussion. Make sure students look carefully at the objects in the image: a copy of the Declaration of Independence, a bust of Benjamin Franklin, a globe and an electrostatic generator. What do these indicate about Jefferson's life and interests?

Once you feel confident the students understand the analysis process, assign each student (or small groups) a portrait of a famous American and have students research the biography of their portrait subject. Students are to deliver a presentation or write a brief report tying the portrait to the subject's biography.

The following list contains examples of the range of portraits of famous Americans available through EDSITEment resources. Use them to access additional portraits to fit such themes as biography, American Revolution, Presidents, First Ladies, Famous American Women, Civil War, Native Americans, Black History, The Twentieth Century, and many more.

• George Washington Carver with background information, both available from the EDSITEment resource National Portrait Gallery.



• High-resolution head-and-shoulders portrait of President Bill Clinton from the EDSITEment resource American Memory.



• Candid photograph of Clinton, from the EDSITEment resource American President, reveals how the burdens of decision-making weigh heavily on President Clinton.



• Sculpture bust of President Clinton, from National Portrait Gallery can be viewed by scrolling down in the left navigational bar to "William J. Clinton" and clicking on the link.



• Albert Einstein, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, from National Portrait Gallery.



• Benjamin Franklin portrayed with symbols of his scientific achievements (oil on canvas, 1762, by Mason Chamberlin), available from National Portrait Gallery.



• Geronimo led Apache tribes in land wars with both the Mexican and U.S. armies; larger image (portraits available from National Portrait Gallery).



• Rosa Parks was arrested for civil disobedience when she refused to relinquish her seat on an Alabama bus to a white passenger in 1955; background information.



• Georgia O' Keefe, a 20th-century American painter, available from the EDSITEment resource Metropolitan Museum of Art.



• Edgar Allen Poe, 19th-century American writer; background information.



• Sequoyah (1770?-1843) developed a Cherokee alphabet and encouraged the printing of books and a newspaper in Cherokee.



• General William Tecumsah Sherman, the Union general most known for his "March to the Sea."



• Frank Sinatra, 20th-century American entertainer; background information.



• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader of the American suffragist movement; background information.



• Harriet Tubman, former slave and a leader of the American abolitionist movement; background information.



• George Washington, scientist and inventor: large image or smaller image with background information.



• George Washington Crossing the Delaware: large image or smaller image with background information

Lesson 4 Portraits in Pictures and Words

Words can "paint" a portrait. The following poems, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed The Academy of American Poets, effectively use language to create an image of the subject:

• "Super Samson Simpson" by Jack Prelutsky



• "Bloody Bill" by Dennis Lee



• "As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed" by Jack Prelutsky



• "Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens" by Jack Prelutsky

Line 1: a one-word topic, such as the subject's name (noun)

Line 2: two describing words (adjectives)

Line 3: three action words (verbs)

Line 4: a four-word phrase

Line 5: a synonym or equivalent for the topic

Lesson 5 Portraits of People at Work

Why are so many portraits created of people with their work? Like the boy painted with his pet falcon in Lesson #1, objects in a photograph can help convey information. How do the objects in the following samples add to the images these photographs project?

• He Mined for Gold; background information.



• Milliner and Daughter (c. 1854)



• Harry Houdini, magician: Image and background information



• Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie, musician, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory; background information.



• Postman loaded with mail waiting for streetcar (1939) Streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. To find this image, search for the title in the EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory.



• Wilt Chamberlain wears the uniform of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team in this three-quarter length portrait found on American Memory.

Lesson 6 Self-portraits

When you create a portrait of yourself, you can project any image you choose. What personal image was each of the following artists trying to project in creating their self-portraits? Why don't artists always create flattering portraits of themselves? (Note: All of these portraits, except for Robert Cornelius, are accessible on the EDSITEment-reviewed Metropolitan Museum of Art website.)

• Robert Cornelius, The Earliest Known American Photograph (1839): small image with background information and larger image available from The Library of Congress, a link from American Memory.



• Mary Cassatt, Portrait of the Artist (1878) available from the EDSITEment resource Metropolitan Museum of Art.



• Andy Warhol, Last Self-Portrait (1986) and background information available from Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Selected EDSITEment Websites