The Museum Network - Portraits & Portraiture: Home

About this Resource

Using five museum collections, teachers and pupils can find out more about the fascinating subject of portraiture, including how portraits were created, how to strike a commanding pose, how to tell someone’s status from their dress and the formal elements that go into making someone’s likeness.

The Collections

This resource compares portraits in the following five museum collections:

Using this Website

VIEW PORTRAITS allows teachers to examine portraits in one or all of the five collections. It provides information about the artist and sitter, and suggests questions for discussion about each portrait. It also includes downloadable colour copies of each portrait for use in class.

provide portraiture-related activities for children to do in class, perhaps after a visit to one of the museums, or as part of their study of portraits. It includes thought-provoking on-line activities as well as those which can be printed out and completed away from the computer.

THEMES addresses thematic topics relevant to discussions of portraiture, such as 'Pose and Expression' and 'Status and Dress' (for a full list please click on the THEMES tab). It includes discussion points and provides links to works of art in the five collections which support each theme.

The TIMELINE shows all 39 portraits in chronological relation to each other so as to set them in context. Some of the founders of each contributing museum collection are shown along with the dates each museum first opened to the public.

Other Information

If you have an enquiry related to this site or would like to contribute feedback please email elearning@wallacecollection.org or ring 020 7563 9527

For booking information and contact details go to www.museumnetworkuk.org