Grades/Level: High School (9–12)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English–Language Arts, History–Social Science
Time Required: 3–5–Part Lesson
Four class periods
Author: J. Paul Getty Museum Education Staff

Lesson Overview

Students will analyze how a portrait reflects the events and trends of its time and then create a portrait of a public female figure today.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:
• research the effects of European expansionism and colonialism on different groups of people during the Age of Exploration;
• discuss the notion of "exoticism" as it relates to a 19th-century painting, the burgeoning of stereotypes, and modern-day stereotyping in the media;
• create a portrait of a female public figure from a different culture.

Materials

• Reproduction of Portrait of the Marquise de Miramon, née Thérèse Feuillant by Jacques Joseph Tissot
• Background Information and Questions for Teaching about the painting (click on the thumbnail of the painting below)
• Drawing paper
• Oil pastels

Lesson Steps

Download the complete lesson by clicking on the "download this lesson" icon above.

Additional Resource:
Learn more about and compare two 19th-century paintings portraying women: Portrait of the Marquise de Miramon, née, Thérèse Feuillant by Jacques Joseph Tissot and The Milliners by Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas.

Glossary Terms:
Words in bold on these pages and in the lesson are defined in the glossary for this curriculum (see "For the Classroom" links above).

Standards Addressed

Refer to the charts for national and California state standards for this curriculum, found in the links at the top right of this page.