ART IN ANY CLASSROOM
Lesson Plans: Elementary
The Language of Portraiture
It is not easy to describe someone in words. A name is often not enough. One might say," Maggie, you know, she's the girl who always wears fancy dresses even on gym days." Or, "Corey, he's the youngest of the Davis boys, freckles, no glasses." Sometimes we don't even know the name. We might say, "that lady at the cash register with the big jewelry who always tries to give us weather updates." Or, "the guy who wears his pants too high on his waist and tucks his tie in his belt." Sometimes we need more than just "Beth Jones," to tell whom we are conjuring, whom we want others to know. But even so, our descriptions are never complete. We take all that we know about someone and then filter the information. We try to discern what is most telling, what another needs to know to understand. Then we give the information from our point of view. We tell what we know, and what we want someone else to know.
And so it is with portraits. An artist is looking at a person and trying to paint for the viewer a very special image. Eyes, nose, mouth, hair, maybe those are included. But there is more. The artist tries to tell us something other than just what the person looks like. The artist looks and tells more than what is seen. The artist gives us information about a person that is especially unique because the artist tells us through the language of art. An artist makes choices about what is important and what to leave out. An artist uses the unique language of color, line, shape and form to give a description. By the choices they make, artists tell about the people they are painting and about themselves and their art.
This lesson looks at two very different portraits. Mrs. Charles Phelps Taft is what one might call a traditional portrait of a person. The painting gives us a good idea about what Mrs. Taft looks like and what kind of person she might be. Young Woman on a Sofa is quite different. We'd be hard pressed to pick this woman out of a crowd. We probably couldn't even find the sofa. But it is a picture of a person. It is a portrait. It is an artist telling us what he knows.
Concept:
A portrait is an artist's description of a person told in the language of the artist.
The Art:Raimundo de Madrazo Garreta
Mrs. Charles Phelps Taft, 1902
Oil on canvas, 49 '/2 X 3 8 1/8 in.
Signed and dated lower left: R. Madrazo/1902
Mrs. Taft was a woman who loved art. She and her husband amassed an extraordinary collection and then left it to the people of Cincinnati. The Taft Museum of Art is a testimony to her appreciation of artists and their work. In this portrait we can see an elegant and sophisticated woman looking graciously at the viewer. She is wearing a radiant white dress trimmed in Venetian lace. Her necklace is a simple black choker with a single teardrop pearl falling from her neck. Another strand of pearls drapes around her bare shoulders and falls to her lap. Flowers accent the bust of her dress and her hands are animated. We could imagine her slowly rising to pour us more tea. The setting of the portrait is a landscape, an azure sky, a tree, and a meadow. All is painted with a loose brushwork and an aristocratic touch. Mrs. Taft looks lovely and important. She could be a president's wife or the president of the garden society. She is a, "use your napkin and watch your language," kind of lady. But she also looks like she would be an interesting person to get to know.
The Artist: Raimundo de Madrazo Garreta (Spanish, 1841 - 1920)
The artist was born in Rome, Italy in 1841. His father, grandfather, and others in his family were also artists. Madrazo spent his boyhood years in Madrid, Spain. He studied with several different artists and in Paris with his father, where he copied the neoclassical paintings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780-1867). Madrazo's early work was inspired and owed much to Ingres. Later, he would be influenced by other artists to paint in a less restricted, more colorful and unconstrained style. Most of his life as an artist was spent in France where he enjoyed great success in a number of exhibitions. But in the late 1880's he traveled to the United States and South America. There he gained a considerable amount of fame for his portrait work and received many commissions from wealthy patrons. It was during this time that he painted the portraits for the Tafts. Madrazo retired in 1910 and died at his home in Versailles, France in 1920.
The Art:Pablo Picasso
Young Woman on a Sofa, 1949
Oil on canvas, 16 3/8 x 10 in.
This portrait is thought to be a painting of Francoise Gilot, a young painter and live-in girlfriend of Picasso for several years. It does not really tell us what Francoise looked like but instead gives us a powerful image of strong shapes and forceful lines. Unlike the portrait of Mrs. Taft, it does not seem like this is the woman who will rise gracefully from the couch to pour us more tea. I think she'd tell us to get it ourselves. Her face seems frozen in a blue and white stare while around her dance shapes of red and yellow with lurking green. The portrait does remind one of the cutout shapes of Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954) whose style may have been the inspiration for this piece. The painting plays with space as the flat red and yellow shapes come towards the viewer while the background recedes into black. The passionate white brushstrokes seem to add an electric quality to the scene.
The Artist:Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
Art begins with the individual.
When the individuality appears, that s the beginning of art.
Pablo Picasso
Ask anyone on the street to name three famous artists and chances are they will include Picasso. Even people who profess to know nothing about art usually know his name. Most school kids, (thanks to the movie Toy Story and a wonderful impression by Mr. Potato Head) are aware of this artist and have some ideas about his art. Pablo Picasso is a major player in the world of modern art.
Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25,1881. The son of an artist, Picasso showed signs of artistic genius when he was very young. At the age of 14 he was already enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona. In his early years of study he alternated between Paris and Barcelona and his style was influenced by the variety of art he saw. In 1904 he made Paris his home where he mingled with a colorful group of artists and writers. Here his paintings had many influences including the work of Matisse, Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906), and African art. The first images of Cubism emerged at this time. In fact it was a piece by Picasso, Les Demoiselles d 'Avignon, that became the cornerstone of the cubist movement. His work would later become more emotionally tense and expressive, less analytical.
During the 20’s and 1n years following, Picasso would experiment and produce an enormous amount of work in a variety of styles and forms. One of his most ambitious and unsettling works is a painting called Guernica. This piece was done in protest of the destruction and despair of war. The painting is mammoth—12 feet high and 25 feet wide. Picasso used elements of cubism and dark ominous colors to portray the anguish of people caught in a battle-torn country. The war he was depicting was in Spain, his homeland.
Picasso, throughout his life, did not limit himself only to painting. He made sculptures, ceramics and prints. His ability to constantly challenge both him self as an artist and the thinking of the viewer has helped make trim one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century. He was truly an original. Picasso died in France on April 8, 1973.
The Lesson:
Portraits have been an important part of the art world since the earliest people decided to create images. People fascinate us. The two portraits in this lesson not only look different; they were done for different reasons. Mrs. Taft hired an artist to paint her portrait, as did many wealthy patrons in her day. Picasso was painting his girlfriend. He was painting someone he knew very well and had strong feelings for. In this lesson students will have to draw a portrait of someone in their class in either the style of Madrazo or Picasso. They will try to capture a person on paper by either making a realistic image or an expressive one.
Materials:12" x 18" white paper, photos of the students in the class, pencils, colored pencils, markers, Sharpie markers (paint and oil pastels could also be used)
1.Discuss how the two portraits look. What do they have in common? How are they different? Look at the differences in color, texture, and background.
2.Talk about the paintings and give students some background information about the artists and the women that they painted. If possible, read Picasso, by Mike Venezia.
3.Discuss other places where we find portraits. There are pictures of the presidents on paper money. Biography does portraits on television of famous people. Baseball cards have portraits along with information about the athlete. Families often have photographs taken as portraits. Discuss why these portraits are made.
4.Obtain a photograph of every student in the class. With digital cameras this should not be as difficult as it once may have been. Give students their photos and let them exchange with another student. They should request that the person they exchange with create a portrait to be done a la Picasso or a la Madrazo. Since students may be inclined to be to rush if they work in the style of Picasso, set some guidelines. The portrait must contain a face-like image. Shapes may be cut out and included in the picture frame but the artist must be able to explain why they were chosen and used. The artist also must explain the choice of color, as it is an important element in expression. Students may choose to work in a cubist or expressive style. (Remind them that Picasso also made realistic portraits. Show examples.)
5.Before students begin to work tell them that they should consult their patron, the person they are drawing, while they are creating their portraits.
6.Let students work in a variety of materials or whatever works best for achieving a suitable portrait.
7.When the portraits are complete, let the artists show off their work and discuss the choices they made. Also discuss how it felt to be a patron.
Goals and Standards:
1.Students will know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas.
2.Students will use different media, techniques and processes to communicate ideas.
Assessment:
1.Students should be able to explain that a portrait is a picture of a person.
2.Students should be able to explain what a patron is.
3.Students should be able to tell three facts about the artist Picasso.
4.Students should be able to recognize that there are many different kinds of portraits made for all different kinds of reasons.
Curriculum Connections:
Language Arts
1. A portrait does not also have to be about what a person looks like. Have students write a portrait that accurately describes someone they all might know without giving a physical description. Have other students try to guess who is portrayed in the portrait.
2.Have students write a letter to Pablo Picasso. Have them tell him what they think about his art or ask him questions.
3.Have students write a poem about Mrs. Taft that would be in keeping with the style of her portrait. Then have them write a poem about Francoise Gilot that would be in keeping with the style of Picasso.
Social Studies
1.Have students research the history of the city of Cincinnati and find out more about the Tafts. Have them learn how life was different in the time of Mrs. Taft. Make lists of things that are in the city today and things that were here back in Mrs. Taft's time.
2.Look at the portraits of the American presidents. Discuss how the artists have portrayed these important people. How have the artists let us know what kind of person they have painted?
Museum Connections:
Visit a museum and look at the portraits. Try to find a portrait to match these suggestions.
1.Find a portrait of a person you would not want as your substitute teacher.
2.Find a portrait of a person you would like to get a present from.
3.Find a portrait of someone you think would be funny.
4.Find a portrait of someone you think would smell nice.
5.Find a portrait of someone your parents would like to have over for dinner.
6.Find a portrait of someone you think would be able to mow your lawn.
7.Find a portrait of a person who looks like he/she could keep a secret.
8.Find a portrait of a person who looks like he/she would like rap music.
9.Find a portrait of someone who looks like he/she needs a hug.
10. Find a portrait of someone who needs a makeover.
Bibliography:
Antoine, Veronique, Picasso: A Day in His Studio, trans. John Goodman, NewYork: 1993.
Heslewood, Juliet, IntroducingPicasso, Boston: 1993.
Janson, H.W. end Anthony F. Janson, History of Artfor Young People, New York: 1987.
Lake, Carlton, Picasso Speaking, online.
Rodari, Florian, A Weekend with Picasso, New York: 1991.
Sullivan, Edward J., "Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Spanish Paintings," The Taft Museum: European and American Paintings, NewYork: 1988.
Venezia, Mike, Picasso, Chicago: 1988.
Start with Art
Mrs. Taft is looking for a new look. Please help her out by giving her a more modern hairstyle and outfit. Don't forget to include a background.