Portraits and Self-Portraits Across the Curriculum

Last summer, I spent some time with upper-elementary and middle school-aged students who were involved in a week-long art camp. The focus was portraiture, and the students could not have been less excited. The instructor immediately captured their attention, however, by discussing the types of portraits found in Harry Potter, with their subjects possessing the ability to move and to visit their other paintings elsewhere in the world.

Could the students think of ways in which moving portraits could be accomplished in the non-magical world? The students instantly bought into the topic, learned a great deal about the genre, and had fun to boot. At the conclusion of the camp, each student had created a self-portrait in various styles of art: Pop art, wire sculpture, collage, using recycled materials, etc.

Many of the portraits that are housed in museums are of people who commissioned artists to reflect their wealth or power, or to commemorate a significant event in their lives. Such portraits tell us much about contemporary society during those time periods, and the artists’ frequent use of symbolism in these works provides further information about the subjects in history and their lives. Yet the idea of portraits and self-portraits isn’t necessarily restricted to the visual arts. In math, for example, phase portraits are graphs that show multiple phrase curves of dynamical systems, while the genre of autobiography can be considered a type of verbal self-portrait. Portraiture – in all subject areas – is a way of focusing on a specific person, idea, or thing, and giving representation of that subject’s complexity through various means. Writers sometimes use portraits as literary devices in their works, such as Edgar Allan Poe in The Oval Portrait and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

This week I’ve highlighted three resources that deal with the subject of portraits in some way. Throughout the week we’ll be featuring many more cross-curricular activities, lesson plans, and other resources on this topic and others on our Twitter and Facebook pages, so be sure to check those pages often.

Fruit and Vegetable Portraits
Subjects: Visual Arts, Art History
Grade: 4-8
Students will create works of art inspired by artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo - a man who created portraits using images of fruits and vegetables. This is a fun lesson for kids, and a nice way to illustrate that there are lots of different ways to make art. This lesson was produced by Kinder Art, a site that offers free art-related lesson plans and activities to teachers and parents.

Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits
Subjects: Language Arts, Visual Arts
Grade: 6-8
In this lesson, students examine Vincent van Gogh’s self-portraits and letters to learn about the individual who created them. They will consider how first-person art forms such as diaries, letters, and self-portraits aid in the process of self-discovery. Students will make comparisons between such art and writing, and produce a Van Gogh-style self-portrait and accompanying letter describing their portrait. This lesson was created by NGA Classroom, an educational component of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Career Self-Portrait
Subjects: Careers, Visual Arts
Grade: 9-12
Students will develop self-awareness and appreciation for their individual characteristics in relation to career development. They will use various materials to create collage self-portraits to represent how their interests, values, and personalities might look when applied to the world of work and their ideal careers. This lesson was produced by the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, a non-profit organization that offers information and resources to individuals who desire additional education or training beyond high school.