Art Investigators: Faces and Places

Teachers

Art Investigators: Faces and Places
Ages 4 to 6, Kindergarten through Grade 3

As "art investigators," students will look for clues to help them understand portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes, and learn about people and places from the past. This tour will introduce students to the museum and show them how to look closely at works of art.

Looking and Learning Skills

During four or five tour stops, students engage in activities such as careful-looking exercises, simple art-making activities, and small group work, which foster conversations about works of art. The following skills are promoted:
• Observing, describing, and sharing ideas about the works of art.
• Developing interpretations about art by drawing on clues, prior knowledge, and imagination.
• Becoming familiar with the museum setting.

Examples of Works Featured on Tour

We look out onto a sweeping, panoramic view with trees, their leaves fiery orange and red, framing a view of a distant body of water under a majestic sky in this long, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and is lined with hazy mountains and clouds in the deep distance. Closest to us, vine-covered, fallen tree trunks and mossy gray boulders line the bottom edge of the canvas. Beyond a trickling waterfall and small pool near the lower left corner and tiny in the scale of the landscape, a group of three men and their dogs sit and recline around a blanket and a picnic basket, their rifles leaning against a tall tree nearby. The land sweeps down to a grassy meadow crossed by a meandering stream that winds into the distance. A low wooden bridge spans the stream to our right, and a few cows drink from the riverbank closeby. Smoke rises from chimneys in a down lining the riverbank and shoreline beyond, and tiny white sails and steamboats dot the waterway. Light pours onto the scene with rays like a starburst from behind a lavender-gray cloud covering the sun, low in the sky. Close examination slowly reveals miniscule birds tucked into the crimson red, golden yellow, and deep sage green leaves of the autumn trees, dabs of white and gray that represent a flock of grazing sheep in the meadow, and people on horseback and foot in the landscape beyond. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed the flat top of a rock at the lower center of the landscape with his name, the title of the painting, and date: “Autumn – on the Hudson River, J.F Cropsey, London 1860.”

Examples of Works Featured on Tour

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn - On the Hudson River, 1860, oil on canvas, National Galery of Art, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1963.9.1

An adolescent ballerina stands before us with her hands clasped behind her lower back, her head tipped back, and her chin thrust forward. The skin of her face, arms, chest, and legs has been painted bronze-brown, and her body faces us in this photograph. The sleeveless putty-gray bodice of her costume fits tightly above a layered, fabric, pale, tea-brown tutu, and she wears ballet shoes. Her hair is pulled back but bangs sweep across her forehead, brushing her nearly closed, heavy eyelids. Her lips are slightly parted and light catches the broad planes of her cheekbones. Her shoulders are drawn back by her pose, holding her hands behind her with arms straight, and her hips jut slightly forward. She stands with her right foot extended in front of her, with both feet turned out, parallel to each other.

Examples of Works Featured on Tour

Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, plaster cast possibly 1920/1921, after original wax modelled 1878-1881, painted plaster, fabric, metal armature, on plaster base, National Gallery of Art, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.62

Examples of Works Featured on Tour

Claude Monet, The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, 1880, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.45

Examples of Works Featured on Tour

Jan Steen, The Dancing Couple, 1663, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection, 1942.9.81

Logistical Information

Group Size: Up to 90 students
Length: 60 minutes
Meeting Location: West Building Rotunda

Additional Gallery Resources

"The Railway," 1873, by Édouard Manet

Download poster (PDF 522KB)

In Édouard Manet’s painting The Railway, we find ourselves in the vicinity of the Gare Saint-Lazare train station in 1870s Paris. Manet, a native Parisian, was convinced that art should concern itself with modern life, and he painted the people and places of Paris that he observed firsthand.

The information and activities on the back of the poster encourage looking at, thinking about, and interpreting art. They can be used flexibly and are suitable for small-group or whole-class work.

Schedule a Tour

Tours must be scheduled at least four weeks in advance. Groups must contain at least 15 students.

Once your tour has been scheduled, you will receive an email confirmation in 10 business days.

Watch a video (grades 1-4) or download a presentation (grades 4-12) (PPT, 4MB) to show your students what to expect on their tour. Please review museum policies, location, parking, accessibility, security, lunch options, and other important visitor information.

Our tour scheduler is available to answer questions on Monday through Wednesday between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. (September through May). Please contact her at (202) 842-6249 [email protected].

Also see our Frequently Asked Questions about School Tours.

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