Painting Portraits

Lesson Plan for Liberty Hall Video

Grade Level: 4th - 6th Grades

Background Information

Portraits of the early eighteenth century were the means of capturing how someone looked in the same way we use photographs today. Portraitists were commissioned very often to create the likeness of a person. Since it took a long time to paint a portrait and great skill, only the very wealthy could afford to get their picture painted. There are many portraits in Liberty Hall of the Brown family. These attest to the wealth of the Browns and the importance John Brown had in Frankfort, Kentucky, and the United States. The video shows the portraits of many Brown family members who lived in Liberty Hall for 135 years. In the house, there are also miniatures, small pictures painted on ivory, of Margaretta and John Brown. The miniature of Margaretta is one of the only images we have of her. The picture provided for this activity is of John Brown and is found inside Liberty Hall.

Kentucky Goals/Academic Expectations

1.3, 1.4, 2.20, 2.23, 2.24

Other Kentucky Goals/Academic Expectations correlate to the Extensions found in this lesson plan.

See Extensions for these extra Kentucky Goals/Academic Expectations

Objectives:

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:

Understand the purpose of portraiture in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s

Learn painting terminology and art appreciation (vocabulary can be found at end of lesson plan)

Analyze different portraits to find information

Materials Needed

Print-outs of John Brown’s portrait

Print off or save to disk 10 pictures from the National Portrait Gallery website (www.npg.si.edu).

Look in the “Collections” area of the website under Hall of Presidents, 18th Century, and 19th Century. Some suggestions of portraits are John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Patience Wright, Samuel Seabury, and/or Charles Pinckney. You will need to write some notes about the people you choose.

A worksheet for students with descriptions of the 10 pictures from the website

(PLEASE NOTE: Any portrait web site, or other source for portraits (books, magazines, etc.) can be used for this lesson. Use whatever is best for your needs)

Time Required 3-4 Class Periods/Days:

60-minute period for Preparation for Video and Watching the Video.

30-minute period for discussion after video in Follow-Up Session

60-minute period for Follow-Up Session

30-60 minute period for extension (if not given for homework)

INSTRUCTIONAL FORMAT

Preparation for Video

Hand out the image of John Brown to the students. Have the students look at the image and write down one-word descriptions of the man. (Mean, kind, rich, old, funny, trustworthy, etc.) Write one word from each student on the board. After this, discuss what else they can infer from the picture about this man. There is no correct answer. Ask questions like the following and record ideas on the board:

Ask: What did this man do for a living? Why do you think this?

When did this man live? Why do you think this?

Where did this man live? Why do you think this?

Did this man have a lot of money? Why do you think this?

Was this man kind? Why do you think this?

Watching the Video

After this exercise, introduce the video and tell the students that they will see portraits in the video of the people who lived in Liberty Hall, including several of John Brown. Discuss the background information given at the beginning of this lesson plan. Tell them to listen carefully for more descriptive words of John Brown in the video. They may want to draw a line down the paper they already have and write down more descriptive words there.

Follow-Up Lesson

Write new descriptive words of John Brown on the board. Discuss whether the students knew a lot about John Brown by just looking at his portrait compared to what they learned about him in the video.

Pass out “Liberty Hall Portrait Information” included at the end of this lesson plan. While the students are reading this, prepare the pictures of the 10 portraits you have selected (either hang them up, pass them out, or display them on a classroom computer screen). After the students have read the “Liberty Hall Portrait Information” tell them they are going to look at some portraits of other people in US History. Hand out the sheet with the 10 portrait descriptions in random order. Have the students decide on their own which description matches each person. Tell them to write one sentence of why they believe the description matches that portrait. (For example: I think this man is Major Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President of the United States and a soldier in the Civil War, because he has a serious look on his face and he looks like he is wearing soldier’s clothing.) At the end give the right answers. Grade writing and not correct answers.

Extensions

Modern Creative Portraits (1.13, 2.22, 3.4)

Have the students pick a family member or a close friend outside of the classroom whom they admire. Pass out paper, magazines, scrap paper, coloring tools, and glue. Have the students create an image of a person with pictures of things that describe their person. Explain that the picture does not have to look the person, but the images should reflect how the student “feels” about the person or what they like about them. After completed, have each student explain what they did and why they created their portrait the way they did.

Research (1.1, 1.16)

Have the students research one of the artists who painted pictures found at Liberty Hall: James Sharples, Matthew Jouett, and John Neagle. Information about these artists can be found on the internet, encyclopedia, or public library. (For extra credit or for students who want a challenge, have them find information on another portrait painter, Oliver Frazier. He will not be as easy to research.) Have them find one other painting painted by their artist besides the ones in the Liberty Hall video. They can look at www.libertyhall.org to see some of the paintings from the video on the computer. Also, have them find three points of information about the painter. For example: their parents’ names, their birthplace, where they lived, what medium they used to create their portraits, etc. Have the students discuss what they find and make a "biography" on a flip chart of each artist.

Field-Trip (1.3, 2.33, 3.5)

Set up a field trip to Liberty Hall. (We would love to have you and your students!) Give the students the name of one of the people whose portrait is in Liberty Hall: John Brown, Mason Brown, Samuel Brown, Benjamin Gratz Brown, or Margaretta Brown (miniature). Let this be the person they are “investigating” while at Liberty Hall. Afterwards, have them write a creative piece of what kind of person he/she was based on his/her portrait and what they heard on the tour.

See www.libertyhall.org for more lessons plans related to taking a field trip to Liberty Hall.

VOCABULARY

Medium (art term)

Pastel (art term)

Miniature (small painting)

Commission

Infer

Liberty Hall Portrait Information

Portraits of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were the means of capturing how someone looked in the same way we use photographs today. Very often portrait painters were commissioned, or requested and offered money, to create the picture of a person. Since it took a long time to paint a portrait and great skill, only the very wealthy could afford to get their picture painted. Painters went to school for many years and some became apprentices of other artists as children. This meant they learned from an older artist how to draw and paint.

There are many portraits in Liberty Hall of the Brown family. John Brown was an important man in Frankfort and in Kentucky and he was also wealthy, so these would be reasons why there are so many portraits of him. The video shows the portraits of many Brown family members who lived in Liberty Hall for 135 years. In the house, there are also miniatures, small pictures painted on ivory, of Margaretta and John Brown. The miniature of Margaretta is one of the few images we have of her.

To create portraits in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in America, portraitists used different mediums, or materials, to create the image. The larger paintings in Liberty Hall are painted with oil paints on canvas. Oil paints were the most common medium to create portraits and are still used very often today. Canvas, a tough fabric, was used to paint on and sometimes wooden board was used. One portrait of John Brown was done with pastels, a special type of soft crayon that could be blended when drawn with. This portrait is much smaller than the oil paintings and probably did not take as long to make.