5 things to do with a painting. #1 Ford Madox Brown - Work @PR_Art1

Work was painted by Ford Madox Brown between 1852 and 1865 and is a great painting to use as part of a project on the Victorians.
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What could you do with it:

1. As part of a hook into leaning cut the painting up and bury pieces of the painting in sand. Ask the children to be archaeologists and uncover the findings using a paintbrush. A great way to start discussion, raise questions and get an idea of what the children might already know about Victorian life. You might not want to give them the whole painting – maybe just sections of it. This could also offer opportunities to discuss the importance of archology and preserving historical artefacts.
2. There is so much going on in this painting it is bursting with life, so why not bring it to life. Create tableaus of the painting with the children in role as the people in the painting. You could add junk percussion to this and create a sound scape of what is going on in the street. Looking at the sights and sounds that would have been heard in this street.
3. The Victorian period was well known for its massive social divides. Work offers great opportunities to begin to examine this on a very simple level. It allows the children to use any previous knowledge to infer which ‘characters’ belong to which social groups and how they know this.
4. Get closer. You could focus on a small section of the painting. This could offer great opportunities for drama and writing. You could choose to focus on the two men at the side in deep conversation and develop a dialogue. You could look at the small child in the red dress carrying a baby – what is their story? This story in particular offers a world of opportunities including looking the life of children in the Victorian period.
5. This painting offers a great insight into Victorian dress for the different classes. Children could use this as a starting point into the studies on costume. They could look at creating textile patters, dying textiles with natural dyes and sewing into these. They could use paper, masking tape and a mannequin to construct Victorian costumes. They could even look at millinery and design and make different hats that might have been worn for a range of people in Victorian society.

These are only 5 simple ideas that could extend out. There is a half terms worth of work which could be done centred around this painting and there are so many paintings which offer similar opportunities. So lets get art and paintings back into our classrooms.

Sophie Merrill

@MissSMerrill