Interpreting Portraiture Collections

• Toolkit Homepage
• Interpretation - for whom?
• Interpretation - how?
• Interpretation - of what?
• Further reading and resources
• Beningborough Hall Case Study
• Acknowledgements
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Visual Interpretation: Images

Images can aid looking or bring a different perspective to a collection of portraits. Suggestions include:

• Sheets of eyes or noses or mouths for visitors to match to the portraits
• Visitors sorting a series of different portraits of the same person into chronological order
• Visitors compare a photograph of a sitter with a painting or sculpture of them
• A sequence of images to show the stages of a technique, for example making paint, pouncing (a Tudor method of multiple copies of portraits) or creating a miniature
• Heads, bodies, legs booklets to mix and match portraits (or similar for parts of the face)

Using different portraits like these ones of Kitty Garman, one of the founders of the Garman Ryan collection at Walsall, visitors can be encouraged to explore the effects of different media. They can also sort them into chronological order according to Kitty's age.

Visual Interpretation: Drawing

Drawing is fairly easy and cheap to provide but needs regular maintenance - provide notice board/washing line and pegs/loose-leaf file for displaying visitors' work.

To select what is to be displayed, have a posting box for completed drawings. Alternatively have a staffed Art Cart available at regular set times. Drawings need not be straight copies - suggest:

• Drawing in different style from the original
• Changing a feature of the portrait to change its meaning
• Drawing a caricature from a straight portrait

Reference: Beningbrough Case Study