Art theme: scenes of everyday life

Scenes of everyday life are known by art historians as 'genre' paintings. They usually focus on ordinary and unidentifiable people doing normal, everyday things. This is the opposite of what art historians call 'history' paintings where the artist shows a specific scene from history or myth.

Look, describe and discuss

Open a full-screen version of the zoomable image in a new window.

Ask your students to describe the artwork, encouraging them to simply say what they can see.

You can start by showing the whole image, and then use the zoom feature to explore details of the painting. Or you might like to start by using the zoom feature to show a detail from the image, and then zoom out to see more.

Encourage your students to look carefully – this is their superpower! It's best to not give too much background information about the artwork at this stage, so students can develop their own ideas and opinions.

An audio description of the painting is available. It is accompanied by a full written transcript which can also be used to describe the painting.

Nudge questions

Now when looking at the painting, ask more specific ('nudge') questions:

• What do you notice about the people in the painting?
• What clues tell you about the sort of work these men do and where they work?
• Do you think this painting looks realistic? Why/why not?
• How would you feel if you were transported into this scene?
• What sounds and smells do you think you would experience if you entered this painting?

Questions from The Superpower of Looking Kit

Now we can start to explore the 'elements' of the painting.

For this artwork, you will focus on:

• Composition
• Figures
• Colour

Ask your students to evidence their points:

• where exactly are they looking when they make a statement?
• can everybody see what they see?
• slow down, take time to really look closely

You can introduce knowledge from the contextual background for teachers while asking these bespoke questions with helpful responses which can be found in the teachers' notes.

Everyone learning

You can find out more about The Superpower of Looking SEND/ASD/ALN/ASN approach on the Superpower homepage.

Now it's time to explore the artwork in different ways. This list of sensory activities encourages students to apply their learning and can suit a variety of learning needs.

Make
We suggest creative activities for all learners, including a tactile option to support students with vision impairment: these activities explore the tactile qualities of materials or involve gestural mark-making to further explore the artwork.

• Draw a friend's portrait in the style of Josef Herman: look at how the face has been abstracted into blocks and the nose has been exaggerated. Chalks and pastels are good materials for this exercise, especially if working on black paper. Try making the outline first, then turn off the lights to explore dramatic shading by illuminating your friend's face on one side with a torch.
• Tactile option: make a blocky model of a face on a flat surface. Use corrugated card to build up layers and PVA glue to stick them down. Take inspiration from the proportions in the miners' faces – their noses are large and exaggerated.
  
  

Experience

• How might it feel to stand up after crouching like these miners? Experiment with crouching for a minute, then stretching up tall. Press your arms against the inside of a door frame for a minute then step forward: your arms will feel like they are rising! Lean with your back against a wall and slide down into a sitting position like a chair. Hold the pose for as long as you can! How do you feel afterwards, and how long does it take to return to normal?
• Turn off the lights and use a torch to cast shadows on a wall. You could use hands, your bodies, or gather some furniture and other classroom objects and make a strange shadowy underground landscape like these miners would work in.
• Listen to the audio description of the painting.

Communicate

• Choose a pair of miners and write a conversation between them. Swap with another pair to act out.
• It was essential for miners to be able to communicate with each other in the dark. Sound signals were important, including shouts, whistles and bells, but miners needed to understand what each sound meant. Make up a simple sound 'language' with a friend using materials around you (a clap, a whistle, tapping the desk with a pencil, etc.). Devise a sound for 'forward', 'back', and 'stop'. See if you can direct your friend to find something across the room (or table, using 'walking' fingers) only using those sounds.

Final stage: review

Ask your students to:

• share their sketchbooks in groups and discuss the 'elements' they have identified
• choose an element/aspect they find most interesting about the artwork and record it in their sketchbooks
• choose their own name/s for the title of the artwork
• think of a question they would like to ask the artist

Congratulations!

You have now completed this lesson resource on The Superpower of Looking.

There are more resources in this theme to try – have a look at the 'next lessons' section below.