Lesson 4: Photos

• Art

Instructions

Equipment

• Easel
• Museum edition ‘The bedroom’
• Digital blackboard/screen
• Internet connection
• Phone with camera to take photo portraits of the students (bring your own).
• Backdrop for the photo
• For each student;
• A pencil (grey)
• Pencil sharpener
• Eraser
• Worksheet for lesson 4

Approximate timings

• Start lesson incl. putting objects out on tables 5 minutes
• Feelings in paintings 15 minutes
• Discuss Vincent’s self-portraits 10 minutes
• Introduce assignment (incl. Bedroom label) 5 minutes
• Assignment steps 1 to 3,      20 minutes
• Assignment step 4 25 minutes
• Discuss photos 10 minutes
• Round off lesson and discuss exhibition 5 minutes

Total: 95 minutes.

Worksheets

A4-werkblad-VGM-DHL-2-def_002_.pdf

Photos

Re-establish contact with the kids and tell them that today you’re going to be making the final piece of art for the exhibition. In the next lesson you will be making an exhibition.

The kids should all have brought something from home. Things for their self-portrait. Group the things together on several number of tables. If the kids haven’t brought much with them, add some extra items from the classroom. It could be anything, as long as it isn’t valuable.

Explain: As you know by now, Vincent made lots of paintings at the yellow house in Arles and the neighbourhood around it. His bedroom for example. Vincent didn’t just paint what he actually saw. He also tried to put some feeling into his work, with the way he used his brushes, and by combining colours so they were in harmony, or contrasted. He tried to express emotions in his paintings.

Do you remember what kind of feeling he wanted to express in the painting of the bedroom? He wanted people to feel complete calm.

Vincent believed it was really important to paint or show his feelings. The picture of his simple bedroom made him calm. What feelings go with the pictures I’m going to show you now, do you think?

Lonely

Angry

Sad

Stable

Surprised

Panicky

Calm

Safe

Exhausted

Artist Vincent van Gogh
Title Garden of the Asylum
Date December 1889
Location Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France
Collection Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Explore with the kids which feeling goes best with this painting and why. 

Vincent wrote that the colour combination in this work 'gives rise a little to the feeling of anxiety from which some of my companions in misfortune often suffer, and which is called "seeing red"'.

This is the garden of the mental hospital in Saint-Rémy, Vincent stayed there voluntarily for treatment for a year.

Then explain: In December 1888 Vincent was living at the yellow house in Arles (in the south of France) with his friend Paul Gauguin, the artist. It wasn’t a perfect combination, and there was lots of tension between them. After an argument Vincent got so upset that he cut off one of his ears. He had probably been working too hard, and wasn’t looking after himself properly.

Bad things kept happening, so Vincent checked himself into a special hostpital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Doctors treated him there to help him calm down again. There were no psychiatrists yet. He painted this picture there. It shows part of the garden.

Vincent stayed at the hospital for nearly a year. When he was very ill he didn’t paint, but in between, when he felt better, he made lots of paintings. About 150 actually. Vincent had an extra room that he used as a studio.

 He used contrasting colours to express the fear that some of the other patients felt (see hotspot).

Lonely

Happy

Sorrowful

Frightened

Excited

Jealous

Calm

Gloomy

Vulnerable

Artist Vincent van Gogh
Title Wheatfield under Thunderclouds
Date July 1890
Location Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Collection Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Explore with the kids which feeling goes best with this painting and why.

'They’re immense stretches of wheatfields under turbulent skies, and I made a point of trying to express sadness, extreme loneliness.'

In the final weeks of his life, Vincent made a number of impressive paintings of the wheatfields around Auvers, near Paris. This is one of them.

Then explain: Vincent wrote to Theo telling him that he was trying to express sadness and extreme loneliness in this empty landscape (see hotspot). 

Cheerful

Angry

Sad

Scared

Surprised

Irritated

Peaceful

Safe

Artist Vincent van Gogh
Title The Bedroom
Date October 1889
Location Arles, France
Collection Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Proud

Explore with the kids which feeling goes best with this painting and why.

Then explain: Vincent van Gogh had a dramatic life. Things weren’t always easy. His mental health problems sometimes made him feel anxious, down and unsure of himself. He was quite vulnerable, but he was also strong. He always tried to find the courage to carry on. Painting helped him, and he found nature very comforting.

He made this painting at a time when he was feeling very vulnerable, shortly after he had cut off his ear. But he carried on painting. In a coat and fur hat – pretty warm clothes. There are Japanese prints (big source of inspiration) and an easel in the background. What do you think he was trying to say by including them?

Vincent van Gogh kept painting, whatever happened. He wanted to carry on.

• Which portrait stands out the most?
• Is there a happy portrait here?
• Which different facial expressions can you see?
• Which clothes stand out the most?

Vincent made more self-portraits, each one different. Discuss the portraits.

- Which portrait stands out the most?

- Is there a happy portrait here?

- Which different facial expressions can you see?

- Which clothes stand out the most?

Now we’re going to get to work. We’re going to do it in stages. We’ll be making an artistic photographic portrait which, if you look closely, says something about who you are. At the end of the lesson you’ll write a little label to go with the picture, explaining what you were trying to say (see hotspot).

There’s often a label next to an artwork in a museum. It gives you the most important information in not too many words. Read out the label for The Bedroom. Or have one of the kids read it.

Discuss two photographic portraits and read their labels out, so it’s clear what the kids have to do.

Let’s get to work

1. Choose characteristics

2. Choose your material

4/5 take the photo

4/5 write a label 

3. Make a quick sketch

worksheet page 1

worksheet page 2

Get your worksheet.

Explain: These are the steps to make your portrait. Mention them briefly. First choose three characteristics that suit you. In step two we’re going to use the things you brought. In step three we’ll make a quick sketch of our ideas. And in step four we’ll take the photo and write a label for it. 

Let’s get to work

1. Choose characteristics

2. Choose your material

4/5 take the photo

4/5 write a label 

3. Make a quick sketch

Get your worksheet.

Explain: These are the steps to make your portrait. Mention them briefly. First choose three characteristics that suit you. In step two we’re going to use the things you brought. In step three we’ll make a quick sketch of our ideas. And in step four we’ll take the photo and write a label for it. 

Let’s get to work

1. Choose characteristics

2. Choose your material

4/5 Take a self-portrait 

4/5 Write a label 

3. Make a quick sketch

The kids have two-and-a-half minutes to make a sketch of what they want their portrait to be like. 

Timer is on the next slide.

Materials

Have the kids think about what three characteristics suit them. They should write down three. 

ambitious

careful

sensitive

creative

dreamer

moody

thinker

 understanding

control freak

curious

impatient

hyperactive

calm

careless

stubborn

funny

smart

kind

lazy

jolly

shy

adventurous

 brave

tidy

strong

patient

something else?

Which three characteristics best describe you?

Have the kids think about what three characteristics suit them. They should write down three. 

• Decide where you want to put your materials
• Draw your materials on the silhouette
• Add some decorations

Let’s get to work

1. Choose characteristics

2. Choose your material

4/5 Take a self-portrait 

4/5 Write a label 

3. Make a quick sketch

Now it’s time to take the photos, table by table. You can take the photos yourself, or the class teacher can take them, or a student who’s particularly interested in photography. Decide what you think would work best. The kids take it in turns to take their place in a spot that is suitable for the photo. Make sure the background is as plain and even as possible, and there’s good light.

Meanwhile, the other students can write their labels explaining briefly what they want to say with their portrait.

Take photographs and write

Hand in your portrait here

Discuss the photos. What things went well? What things were difficult? Who feels like they’ve made a good self-portrait?

Make sure everyone gets their things back.

Look ahead to the last lesson, when you’re going to put together an exhibition.

What preparations do you need to make?

After the evaluation, discuss with the class what is available to use to make an exhibition of the art the kids have made.

- Where is there space to show them? Are string, large sheets of coloured paper, clothes pegs, tape, partitions, tables, cork boards available, or are there other alternatives you can use?

- Can you see a way of bringing some unity to the exhibition in the space and with the material available?

- Could someone like the headteacher come and open the exhibition at the end of the next lesson? Would it be possible to arrange an evening viewing for parents?