Interpreting Portraiture Collections

• Toolkit Homepage
• Interpretation - for whom?
• Interpretation - how?
• Interpretation - of what?
• Further reading and resources
• Beningborough Hall Case Study
• Acknowledgements
• Return to main Toolkits page

How to Interpret and Understand the Language of Portraits

Author: Clare Gittings

All museum and gallery visitors bring with them the ideal equipment for interpreting portraits - themselves.

Whatever their age or background, they have immense amounts of useful prior knowledge that can be tapped into - knowledge, for example, about emotions conveyed through body language and facial expressions or about giving messages through clothing. This includes the experience of having had an image made of themselves, generally a photograph.

These are all links that can be used in the interpretation of portraits, demystifying them by stressing common human links and building bridges between viewers and sitters. People are usually interested in other people and will be prepared to make some effort to 'meet' your sitters if you introduce them in an appealing and intriguing manner.

The ideal portrait interpretation draws on as many senses as you can persuade your visitors to employ to bring your portraits to life, while building transferable skills for encountering other portraits in the future.

This toolkit is in three main sections:

• Interpretation - for Whom? looks at the interpretation needs of different audiences
• Interpretation - How? looks at a range of techniques including using words, images, drawing, websites and hi- and low-tech interactives
• Interpretation - of What? looks at portrait reading, developing generic portrait reading skills, further aspects to consider and reading specific portraits

Each section gives practical suggestions that have been successfully used elsewhere. Some of these are illustrated with captioned images from a range of different museums, galleries and historic houses in Britain and websites from both Britain and abroad. The case study on Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire, also provides many examples of ideas for interpretation.

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