These lessons about portraiture were designed for elementary and secondary teachers and include related visual-arts and language-arts content standards. In the Image Bank you will find additional suggested questions and activities for use with the images that can be adapted to different grade levels and particular classrooms.

Lessons 1–4 of 4

Looking at Portraits: Literary Monuments
Grades/Level: High School (9–12)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: Students will examine artworks, research literature, and create study drawings and a 3-D model for a monument to a literary figure.

Looking at Portraits: Reading Poe
Grades/Level: High School (9–12)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: Students will compare the daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe by an unknown photographer with Poe's writings in an effort to discover the character of this mysterious author.

Looking at Portraits: Portraits in Line
Grades/Level: Middle School (6–8)
Subjects: Visual Arts
Lesson Overview: Students will use Van Gogh's Portrait of Joseph Roulin as inspiration for their own portraits of friends in the classroom.

Looking at Portraits: Looking at One's Self
Grades/Level: Lower Elementary (K–2)
Subjects: Visual Arts
Lesson Overview: Students will examine Charles-Antoine Coypel's Self-Portrait and understand what he shows in this work.

Lessons 1–4 of 4