Students will

• visually examine and analyze two historical portraits in the About Face exhibit in order to identify differences.
• construct the framework to use art as a primary source document.

Lesson Times:

If you attend the About Face exhibit in the Memorial Art Gallery, this lesson consists of suggested pre-visit, visit, and post-visit activity.

Vocabulary:

identity - the characteristics and qualities of a person, considered collectively and regarded as essential to that person's self-awareness.
portrait - a work of art that represents a specific person.
silversmith - one whose occupation is making and repairing articles of silver.
sitter - the person who is the subject of a portrait.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should have begun study of colonial America, with some basic background in pre-Revolutionary Boston.

Image #1
John Singleton Copley
American, 1737-1815
Nathaniel Hurd, ca. 1765
Oil on canvas, 29 3/8 x 24 5/8"

Memorial Art Gallery,
Marion Stratton Gould Fund, 44.2

Image #2
John Singleton Copley
American, 1737-1815
Nathaniel Hurd, ca. 1765
Oil on canvas, 30 3/8 x 25 3/8"

Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Lesson: Pre-visit

1. Photocopy one worksheet for each student. To facilitate brainstorming, have your students pair up for the looking exercise.
2. Project Slide 1 & 2. Be sure to let them know these are images that will be seen and explored during their visit to the Memorial Art Gallery. Do not let them know these two portraits are of the same man.
3. Tell the students they are expected to study the two projected images in depth. Give them approximately 10 minutes to look at the portraits and brainstorm with their partner.
4. On the worksheet provided in the 'Observations' column, each student is to write down 10-15 differences they can identify between the two portraits, paying attention to such features as clothing, textures, facial features, pose, lighting, mood, etc. This could be as simple as, "The man on the left has two books in front of him, the man on the right does not." If the students begin by making judgements about the portraits, ask the students to explain their answers. For example, if a student says that one of the men looks like a more cheerful person, they need to tell you what it is about the way the person is painted that makes them appear so. "This man looks nicer than the other man. I say this because I can see that he has a bit of a smile on his face, his eyes that are looking at me are friendly, and he is wearing bright, colorful clothes. Whereas the other man is surrounded by grays and the whole portrait appears more distant because he is not even looking out at the viewer." The goal of the 'Observations' part of this lesson is to have the students study and explain the two paintings' formal features (color, light, composition, brushstroke, space, etc.) in detail so their later discussion of the paintings' meanings is based on solid observations.
5. After the students have identified these differences, each group can share one observation as you go around the room until all observations have been shared with the class. Every new addition can be written on the blackboard, an overhead transparency, or on each student's personal worksheet.
6. Once the observations are exhausted the students will address the questions in the 'Opinions' column of their worksheet. The answers should be based on the previous observations made of the two works. These questions are:

• What is going on in these portraits? Explain your answer.
• When/where do these men live?
• What do you think each man does for a living, or as a hobby?
• Can you guess what their social status is?
• What type of audience do you think was intended for each portrait?
• Which portrait do you like better?
• Why do you like one more than the other?
• If you had a valuable secret, which of these men would you share it with? Why?

7. Ask the students to be clear about the reasons for their answers. They should explain their 'Opinions' based upon the 'Observations' they just made. If the students need more room to write their explanations, they can turn to the back of their worksheet. The opinions are, of course, personal, so although the students are encouraged to share their opinions with the class, it is not necessary that each student add any other opinions to their own list. You can post the students' responses on the blackboard or an overhead transparency for class consideration.
8. Finally, in the 'Questions' column, the students will write down at least three to five questions they have about these two portraits that cannot be answered simply by looking at them. What are they hoping to learn about these portraits while they are at the museum?

Lesson at the Gallery Exhibit:

1. These worksheets will be brought to the gallery visit, so the students can compare their own observations and opinions with what is known about the two portraits. The questions the students formulate in the classroom during their looking exercise will allow the students to interact with the exhibition material during their visit.
2. Let the students know that while they are in the 'About Face' exhibit, they are required to actively pursue at least two of the answers to the questions they generated in the classroom. They will be expected to be able to reflect upon their discoveries in class after the gallery visit.

Follow-up (Option #1):
After the gallery visit, when they are back in the classroom, ask the students to discuss any new ideas on Nathaniel Hurd's portrait they found in the exhibit. Add these comments to the lists on the blackboard or overhead transparency.

• What kind of answers did you find to your questions?
• Was there anything you were not expecting to discover?
• Was there something you were hoping to learn about at the exhibit that was not discussed?
• Were any of your opinions or observations way off, or surprisingly accurate?

Follow-up (Option #2):
Instruct the students to look at the collection of portraits in the teacher's packet of materials. All are from the Memorial Art Gallery groups and then to explain the categories they used to create the groups. Students could then try to hang the portraits in a classroom art gallery. The students could also explore the use of these portraits as social documents by asking the same questions they asked of the Hurd portrait.

Follow-Up (Option #3):
Examine other portraits on line.

• http://www.earlyamerica.com/portraits/index.html "Gallery of Early American Portraits"
  *This site provides a menu of portraits of such notable historic figures as John Hancock, John and Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin.

Think about it:

In this lesson we have been trying to understand the meanings portraits holds in their historical contexts. Is there any way we can ever get past looking at historical objects through modern eyes? Can we ever truly understand the portrait of Nathaniel Hurd in the same way that a colonial American would have?

Evaluation:

Students can be assessed through their participation in the 'Observations' activity, their ability to build interpretations on observations in the 'Opinions' activity, and their active, self-guided engagement with the About Face exhibit.

Summary:

Students will participate in a process of visual observation, comparison, and inquiry that will culminate with a visit to the gallery where the portraits of Hurd will be placed within the historical context of colonial Boston. This lesson plan will help students create their own framework in which to approach and engage the material in the About Face exhibit.