Literacy & Art

Thomas
Gainsborough
Biography

Abel Moysey
painting

Portrait of a
Girl and Boy

Teaching Ideas
and Activities:
pre-visit

at the museum

post-visit

Pre-visit activities

Information

It would be helpful if before your visit you could give the children some prior information

• Tell them about Thomas Gainsborough, his importance as a painter and relevance to local history.
• Explain terms used in describing paintings: artist, sitter, background, foreground, canvas, frame, palette, oil paint, expression, gallery, costume, portrait, landscape.
• Talk about portraits and landscapes and their characteristics

 

Classroom activities

Brainstorm a portrait in groups

Think of questions you could ask about it, for example:

• Do you think the artist liked this person?
• How old is he/she? Is he/she rich or poor?
• Why is the picture this size?
• What might the sitter be looking at?
• Why is he/she having his/her portrait painted?
• Would you like to meet him/her?
• What would you say to this person if you met him/her?

- and any other questions you can think up.

Postcard games in pairs.

One child verbally describes his picture and the other makes a picture from the description.
In groups, each child writes a description of their card. The written pieces are re-distributed and each child tries to match the description he/she has, with the right picture.

For teachers' bibliography see next page