Grades/Level: Lower Elementary (K–2), Upper Elementary (3–5), Middle School (6–8), High School (9–12)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English–Language Arts
Time Required: Short Activity
20 minutes
Author: J. Paul Getty Museum Education Staff

Activity Overview

This is a follow-up activity to the Getty Center Guided Lesson Body Language. This activity will help culminate and extend the Museum visit back into the classroom. After introducing the idea of portraits, students will create their own self-portrait or a portrait of someone to whom they are close.

Learning Objectives

Students should be able to:
• create a self-portrait or a portrait of someone to whom they are close.

Materials

• Image of Human Erosion in California (Migrant Mother) by Dorothea Lange
• Drawing paper, pencils, and other materials to paint and/or collage

Activity Steps

Step 1: Ask your students to share what they learned about body language during the lesson at the Getty Museum.

Step 2: Next, ask your students to think about portraits. Pose the following questions:
• Is a picture of a person always a portrait? What is a portrait?
• What is the difference between a formal portrait and a candid shot?
• Do you think the image of the migrant mother was a formal portrait or a candid shot? Why? Which type of portrait is more common?
• Is your school picture a portrait of you? Are you always satisfied with the results of your portrait?
• Do you do anything differently on the day you know you are going to have your school picture taken? What goes through your mind when you know that you are going to have your portrait made?
• What is the purpose of a portrait? What makes a good portrait?
• Do you own any portraits of family members or friends? Are they important to you? Why? When you look at your portraits, what memories do they bring to mind?

Step 3: Tell your students that before photography was invented in the mid-1800s, wealthy people, or patrons, paid artists to capture their likenesses in painting or sculpture. Portraits were made for many reasons—as family heirlooms, as a way of showing one's social standing, or as a historical document, for example. By looking carefully at a portrait, you can discover clues that tell you about the person represented and the time when the artwork was made.

Step 4: Assign your students the task of creating a self-portrait or a portrait of someone to whom they are close. Depending on the grade level of your students, choose the art materials or let the students select their own materials. For example, your students could do drawings, create collages, or take photographs. Before your students begin, look back at the image of Dorothea Lange's photograph Human Erosion and review what they learned about how artists express emotions, ideas, and physical conditions through gesture, pose, clothing, and expression.

Step 5: Display the portraits and discuss the work together as a group.

Extensions

Learn more about portraits and download additional activities and grade-specific lesson plans online: Looking at Portraits: Lessons and Ideas for Discussion