Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Visual Arts |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - Civics and U.S. Government |
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Time Required |
| Two to three class periods
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Skills |
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information gathering and research skills
primary source analysis
visual art interpretation
critical thinking
historical analysis
Internet skills
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Date Posted |
| 5/21/2002 |
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What Portraits Reveal
IntroductionThis lesson is designed to help
students recognize that portraits, whether paintings or photographs, can tell
us more about people of the past than just what they looked like. Students first
compare portraits of three Presidents of the United States to note how changes
in style can reflect changing social attitudes, in this case changing American
attitudes toward the Presidency. Next they examine portraits of Americans from
the Revolutionary War era in order to learn how portraits can tell a person's
story, both through details of the portrait itself and through evidence of why
it was produced or (in some cases) how it has been altered. Finally, students
consider how portraits can be manipulated to express a specific point of view,
examining caricatures, monuments, and artworks that turn the representation of
individuals into statements about what they stand for. To conclude the lesson,
students gather portraits from their own homes and prepare a report explaining
what these items might tell a future historian about life in our times.
Learning Objectives- To gain experience in
working with portraits as a source of historical evidence
- To
consider the part that interpretation plays in drawing evidence from historical
portraits
- To examine uses of portraiture
that comment on the significance of an individual
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To explore the potential historical significance of portraits made today.
1 Begin by explaining that in this
lesson students will examine a variety of historical portraits in order to learn
what this familiar genre of art can contribute to our knowledge and understanding
of the past. To guide their study, have students create a Portrait Analysis Worksheet
based on the "Photograph Analysis Worksheet" available through EDSITEment at the
Digital Classroom
website of the National Archives and Records Administration. At the website's
homepage, click "Document Analysis Worksheets” under the heading “Resources” and
click Photograph.
Discuss with students what questions they would add to adapt this worksheet for
the study of portraits. For example: Who created the portrait? When was it produced?
Is it a life-portrait or based on an image of the subject? How has it been preserved
and displayed? What do you know about the person portrayed in the portrait? What
is the person wearing? What is his or her facial expression? What is the backdrop
or setting of the portrait? When you have produced your worksheet, provide copies
to all members of the class. 2 Have students
look first at Presidential portraits from three different historical eras in order
to investigate how styles of portraiture have changed and what these changes suggest
about changing social attitudes. Portraits of all the Presidents are available
through EDSITEment at the National Portrait Gallery
website; click "Collections" at the website's homepage, then click Hall
of Presidents then “Portraits in the Hall of Presidents” and use the menu
in the lefthand frame to view the collection. Three portraits that offer interesting
points of comparison are those of George Washington (based on a 1793 original),
Grover Cleveland (painted in 1899), and George Bush (painted in 1995). - Have
students work individually or in groups to analyze these three portraits using
their worksheets and the background on each president available at the National
Portrait Gallery website. In a class discussion, compare their responses to
selected sections of the worksheet. For example, how would they describe the President's
facial expression in each portrait?
- Help
students compare the impressions created by these portraits. How is the President
posed in each portrait? What does the pose suggest about his character? his political
stature? What background has the artist selected for each portrait? What does
this setting suggest about the President's place in American society? the nature
of his work? the scene of his accomplishments? What is the President wearing in
each portrait? What do his clothes suggest about his personality? his self-image?
his public role? How has the artist used lighting and color in each portrait?
What emotional atmosphere do these elements convey? What do they suggest about
the President's temperament? his inner life? his sense of purpose? Have students
summarize the impression created by each Presidential portrait in a paragraph.
- Suggest
to students that in these three portraits we can see not only what the President
looked like but also what the Presidency looked like to Americans at three periods
in our history. Remind them that each portrait was created for public display
as a memorial of both the man and his time in office. Help students analyze the
portraits from this point of view by noticing first how each artist frames the
President. Is he near the viewer or far away? Shown in full figure or in close
up? Does he fill the frame or seem part of a larger scene? Have students discuss
how these aspects of each portrait establish a relationship between the viewer
and the President. What other elements contribute to this relationship? Have students
comment on the direction of each President's gaze, his "body language," and the
angle from which we view him (e.g., looking up, looking down, etc.). What can
we infer from such details about the way Americans regarded the Presidency during
these three historical periods?
- Conclude
this part of the lesson by having students suggest how an historian might verify
the historical accuracy of the interpretation of these portraits. What other primary
sources could reveal how Americans viewed the Presidency at different times in
our past?
3 Turn next to portraits
that "tell a story" about the person portrayed through details in the portrait
itself or through details about the portrait that have been uncovered by art historians.
Several portraits that lend themselves to this kind of study can be found in the
"Age of Revolution" collection at the National
Portrait Gallery website accessible through EDSITEment. Click "Collections"
at the website's homepage, then select "18th Century.” - Have
students work in groups, giving each group one of the following portraits to analyze
using the worksheet and the background on each portrait provided at the National
Portrait Gallery website: Horatio
Gates, Henry
Laurens, William
Moultrie, Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney, and Patience
Wright. Have each group report its findings to the class.
- Discuss
as a class the significance of such details as:
- The
interplay of storm clouds and sunlight in the portrait of Horatio Gates, which
some have seen as an allusion to his military career, clouded by a disastrous
loss at the Battle of Camden two years before the portrait was made. Is this "reading
too much" into the portrait? What broader interpretation might account for the
artist's decision to show Gates against a stormy background?
- The
luxurious setting and governmental papers in the portrait of Henry Laurens, whom
the artist calls "President of the American Congress." How do such details serve
to "tell the story" of his political career? Point out to students that this portrait
was made in 1782, the same year that Laurens emerged from a British prison too
weak to participate in negotiating a final end to the Revolutionary War. Is this
part of his story reflected in the portrait? Should we assume that the artist
added health and vigor to his subject? Notice also the creation of a suggested
stage in the setting of this portrait. Can one take this as a subtle indication
that Laurens has played a leading part in the drama of his times?
- The
Charleston fortifications shown (very indistinctly) in the background of the William
Moultrie portrait, and the star added to his uniform. How does the inclusion of
such "biographical" details compare with the more symbolic storytelling of the
Gates and Laurens portraits? What kind of reading do they invite? What do they
suggest about the person portrayed and his sense of his own story? To what extent
do such details reduce the portrait to a kind of resumé?
- The
painted-over uniform in the portrait of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. To what extent
does this simply update the original portrait, which showed Pinckney in the British
colors (i.e., red coat) of the Charleston militia, a pre-Revolutionary unit. To
what extent does it demonstrate the strength of Pinckney's allegiance to the newly
formed United States? (Remind students that many military leaders of the American
Revolution had served, like Pinckney, in colonial militias that were loyal to
the Crown.) What would motivate Pinckney to repaint his portrait in this way:
embarrassment? anger? honor? Could one read this detail as an indication that
Pinckney was a "turncoat"? Why or why not?
- The
depiction of Patience Wright's unusual method of fashioning wax likenesses. Would
it be possible to understand the significance of this detail if it were not explained
in the caption to the portrait? To what extent does it add a touch of "real life"
to her portrait? To what extent does it place her in a posture which the average
viewer might only find confusing? How does this attempt to tell the person's story
compare with the more symbolic or biographical techniques seen in the other portraits
of this collection?
- After students have
presented their reports, discuss how an historian might use the "storytelling"
details found in a portrait. To what extent might they be a source of historical
fact? Can one interpret such details without already knowing the facts they allude
to? To what extent might they cast additional light on the character of the persons
portrayed? Can one assume that Laurens wanted the alliance he had presided over
included in his portrait? that Moultrie wanted himself portrayed with the fortifications
he had defended in the background? Might an historian infer that such details
allude to what these men saw as most significant in their lives?
- Conclude
this part of the lesson by having students consider the preparations they make
to have their own portraits made, for example, by the school photographer. What
"story" do they aim to tell about themselves through the clothes they wear, the
way they style their hair, the expressions they assume? Have students consider
the range of storytelling techniques they have seen in portrait painting and write
a description of the portrait they would have an artist make of them. What symbolic
details would they include? what biographical items? what emblems of their beliefs
and accomplishments? What sort of setting would they choose? What would they be
doing in the portrait? Have students read their self-portraits to the class.
4 Turn finally to portraits that
express a specific point of view toward the person portrayed or that make a statement
about their subject. - Caricature is an obvious use
of portraiture to express a point of view. For examples, see the political cartoons
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt collected at The
New Deal Network website on EDSITEment. At the website's homepage, click "TVA:
Electricity for All," then select "The TVA in Cartoons." For a range of representations
of Roosevelt, click "In
His Mind's Eye," which presents FDR as a visionary; "Franklin's
Successful Experiment," which compares Roosevelt weathering a constitutional
storm with Benjamin Franklin's famous kite-flying experiment; and "At
the Snow White House," which borrows imagery from the then-new Disney film,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to show Roosevelt in political difficulties.
(There is also a lesson plan on political cartoons at The
New Deal Network website, which draws on this collection. Click "Classroom
Resources" on the website's homepage, then select "Lesson Plans" and click "TVA:
Electricity for All" for a link to "Lesson
1: Political Cartoons and the TVA."
- Monuments
also stretch the conventions of portraiture to make a statement about their subject.
The heroic statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial offers an example
which can be accessed through EDSITEment at the Digital
Classroom website of the National Archives and Records Administration. Click
"Teaching with Documents" at the website's homepage, then scroll down to the heading
“The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)” and click "The
Unfinished Lincoln Memorial" for a lesson plan.
5
Have students work in groups to analyze these images using their Portrait Analysis
Worksheets. To sharpen their appreciation of the FDR caricatures, provide them
also with the "Cartoon Analysis Worksheet" available through EDSITEment at the
Digital
Classroom website of the National Archives and Records Administration. (Click Cartoon analysis worksheet in the box to the righteither the PDF or HTML format.)
When they have completed their analyses, compare their impressions and interpretations
of these images. - Discuss the use of symbolism and
allusion to add a specific note of significance to these portraits.
- What does FDR's pose in the cartoon, "In
His Mind's Eye," symbolize? What images of American history does it allude
to? What is the implication of the visual pun in the cartoon "Franklin's
Successful Experiment"? What does the cartoon say about FDR's relationship
to Benjamin Franklin? How does the symbolism in these two supportive cartoons
differ from that in the critical "At
the Snow White House"? What is implied by showing FDR and his New Deal program
as Disney characters?
- Contrast the everyday
vocabulary of these cartoon symbols with the classical symbols used in the statue
of Lincoln. What is implied by placing Lincoln among emblems of ancient Roman
power? What other symbols does the sculptor use to characterize his subject? How
do Lincoln's hands -- one a fist, the other open -- lend significance to this
portrait?
- Compare the symbolic details in
these portraits with the "telling details" that appear in the portraits from the
Age of Revolution. Which are comments on the meaning of the individual portrayed?
Which are comments on the life of the individual? How can we distinguish these
two uses of significant detail? What kind of historical evidence can each provide?
- Close
this part of the lesson by having students reconsider the question of American
attitudes toward the Presidency in light of this last set of Presidential portraits.
- What is the viewer's relationship to FDR as portrayed
in the political cartoons? Is it significant that he is shown in full-figure and
with no indication of the disability that forced him to use a wheelchair? What
does the elimination of that historical fact suggest about what these cartoonists
(and their audience) want to see in their president? (On this point, you might
remind students that FDR and his aides also worked hard to keep his physical disability
as inconspicuous as possible.)
- What is the
viewer's relationship to Lincoln as portrayed at the Lincoln Memorial? Does this
gigantic statue seem remote, imposing, domineering? What impression of Lincoln
does the sculptor convey by showing him seated yet elevated on a pedestal? by
showing him in ordinary 19th-century clothing yet surrounded by classic symbols
of power? In what sense do these seeming contradictions in the portrait achieve
balance?
- Consider finally the degree to which
these portraits can be regarded as reflecting popular attitudes toward the Presidency.
Were they created for the same purpose as the portraits examined at the start
of this lesson? To what extent do they aim for a consensus view of their subject
and to what extent do they express the particular views of the artist? What kind
of evidence about historical attitudes toward the Presidency could they provide?
6 Conclude this lesson by asking
students to research the portrait collections in their own homes, which are most
likely made up of snapshots of family members. Have each student select a set
of at least three portraits for analysis -- for example, portraits of fathers
over three generations, graduation portraits, baby portraits, portraits of the
family pet. Have students use their Portrait Analysis Sheet to examine their portraits
and explore some of the issues raised in this lesson: how portraits convey an
attitude toward their subject, how they tell a story about their subject, how
they express a point of view about their subject. Have each student prepare a
report or exhibit interpreting the portraits they have collected to produce a
chapter of family history. Extending the LessonComplement this study
of portraits as historical documents with an introduction to some of the artistic
traditions that have influenced portraiture, drawing on the resources of the Detroit
Institute of Arts website on EDSITEment. The collection of Colonial Portraits
at this website, for example, can provide a useful aesthetic context for the "Age
of Revolution" portraits found on the National
Portrait Gallery website. At the Detroit Institute
of Arts website homepage, click "Collections" at the top, then select "American
Art" and select “Colonial
Art” at the top.
Standards Alignment
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