Art & Portraiture: Learning Resources and How to Use Them
A free online hub designed to support learning about portraiture and art and history through artworks. It includes activities, videos, and lesson ideas for primary and secondary pupils that help children look closely at portraits and analyse meaning.
The Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery (USA) offers downloadable worksheets to help students explore portraits with thinking routines such as See–Think–Wonder, Compare and Contrast, and Storytelling — useful for deepening observation skills and historical interpretation
Art History Support
Heritage & History Resources
The National Trust’s Petworth pages include detailed background on the house’s architecture, rooms, and art collection across centuries, and downloadable tours and guides that bring its stories to life.
How Teachers Might Use ThesePortrait investigation lessons: link your painting descriptions with National Portrait Gallery worksheets to build deeper questioning skills.
Art history context: use Smarthistory videos or essays to explain artistic styles and times.
Historic house projects: integrate National Trust and Historic England resources to explore how people lived and why these houses and collections matter.
Creative tasks: connect portrait-making and storytelling resources (Royal Collection, Wallace Collection) to pupils’ own artwork inspired by your songs.
A set of free school and family resources on how to look at and make portraits, explaining key ideas about what portraits tell us and how artists represent people.
Free downloadable teacher resources on portraiture, including classroom presentations and activity ideas linked to portraits and themes such as power, identity and story.
A large library of free teaching materials covering British history, timelines, historical sources, and activities, which can support lessons on historical houses and past lives.
A free online art history resource with accessible videos and essays for teachers and pupils on artists, painting analysis, artistic movements, and cultural context, suitable for deeper classroom discussion.
A timeline of the site from early ownership through medieval and modern eras, including its transfer to the National Trust and conservation history — useful for linking art with place and people over time.
Free downloadable packs, images, worksheets, and local history guides that can support work on historic buildings like Petworth — especially useful for linking art with broader history and places.
Petworth House Specific Resources
Art & Portraiture: Learning Resources and How to Use Them
Art & Portraiture: Learning Resources and How to Use Them
Art & Portraiture-
A free online hub designed to support learning about portraiture and art and history through artworks. It includes activities, videos, and lesson ideas for primary and secondary pupils that help children look closely at portraits and analyse meaning.
-
The Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery (USA) offers downloadable worksheets to help students explore portraits with thinking routines such as See–Think–Wonder, Compare and Contrast, and Storytelling — useful for deepening observation skills and historical interpretation.
-
A set of free school and family resources on how to look at and make portraits, explaining key ideas about what portraits tell us and how artists represent people.
-
Free downloadable teacher resources on portraiture, including classroom presentations and activity ideas linked to portraits and themes such as power, identity and story.
Heritage & History Resources-
A large library of free teaching materials covering British history, timelines, historical sources, and activities, which can support lessons on historical houses and past lives.
-
Free downloadable packs, images, worksheets, and local history guides that can support work on historic buildings like Petworth — especially useful for linking art with broader history and places.
Art History Support-
A free online art history resource with accessible videos and essays for teachers and pupils on artists, painting analysis, artistic movements, and cultural context, suitable for deeper classroom discussion.
Petworth House Specific Resources
-
The National Trust’s Petworth pages include detailed background on the house’s architecture, rooms, and art collection across centuries, and downloadable tours and guides that bring its stories to life.
nationaltrustcollections.org.uk
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A timeline of the site from early ownership through medieval and modern eras, including its transfer to the National Trust and conservation history — useful for linking art with place and people over time.
How Teachers Might Use TheseArt history context: use Smarthistory videos or essays to explain artistic styles and times. Historic house projects: integrate National Trust and Historic England resources to explore how people lived and why these houses and collections matter. Creative tasks: connect portrait-making and storytelling resources (Royal Collection, Wallace Collection) to pupils’ own artwork inspired by your songs.