How to Show Pictures to Children/Chapter 5

by Estelle May Hurll

V

THE GAME OF PICTURE-POSING

Of many delightful ways of familiarizing our children with good art, the game of picture-posing is one which captivates the child’s fancy at once. It is an attempt to “act out” or reproduce a famous picture. The child “plays” he is the figure in the picture, and assumes the same pose and gesture to the best of his ability. The game is a somewhat modernized version of one of the most popular of old-time amusements, the tableau vivant. In days when most of our pleasures were home-made, “tableaux” were next in favor to amateur theatricals. They were a favorite pastime in stormy days indoors, when we invented our own subjects as we went along. The multiplication of children’s amusements has relegated this fashion to the background, but it is now being revived in new form. The idea of reproducing famous masterpieces has usually been associated with the more ambitious efforts of public entertainments. To adopt it as a children’s game is a comparatively new departure, just as it is a new thing for children to get masterpieces in penny prints. The plan is well worth working out both in the home and the school.

The theory is perfectly simple. What could make children look at a picture more attentively than the suggestion that they are to reproduce the action of the figures? To get the pose and arrange the drapery correctly, they have to make a careful study of the lines and masses of the composition. While they are having a great deal of fun, they are unconsciously learning something of pictures. They are surely not likely to forget the make-up of a picture they have handled in this way. Quite aside from the art standpoint, such a game is a means of developing self-expression. On this ground it is of special interest to the primary teacher. It connects closely with the dramatic games now growing in popularity in the schoolroom. Apparently it accomplishes similar results helping the child towards flexibility and freedom, while it gives him something worth remembering all his life.

Some wonderful and never-to-be-forgotten mornings of picture games have strengthened my confidence in this new educational method. I had the privilege of visiting a primary school, to try a program with the children, and the experiment succeeded beyond my fondest expectations. Besides my parcel of pictures, the rest of the apparatus was of the most limited kind. The teacher and I had hastily collected a few odds and ends in the way of properties. It is not necessary or desirable to introduce costumes and accessories into the schoolroom. In the home the conditions are altogether different and permit an expansion of the idea as I shall presently explain; but in the school the plan is on the simplest basis. Our selection of pictures had been made very carefully on this account. Pose rather than costume was the guiding principle of choice. So we took the following six subjects:—

 

Millet’s Sower;

Titian’s Lavinia;

Murillo’s Fruit Venders;

Madame Le Brun and her Daughter;

Rubens’s Two Sons;

William M. Chase’s Alice.

 

My big parcel was eyed with eager curiosity, and every little face broke into smiles at the announcement of a new game. To prepare the way, the children first played one of their dramatic games, and while the runaway sheep were in the meadow, and the cows in the corn, little Boy Blue being fast asleep in the corner, we had a chance to pick out the boys and girls best adapted to the picture rôles. It was a slum neighborhood with a mixture of nationalities; most of the children were poorly dressed, and some were very dirty. It might seem an unfavorable field for an art experiment. But what we wanted most was responsiveness, and this good quality was found in abundant measure. The Portuguese children promised well for the Spanish types of Murillo’s street children, and plenty of boys would do for the Sower, but how to match, among the ill-clad, anæmic little children of the poor, the plump, richly gowned Lavinia, or the elegant, high-bred sons of Rubens? However, we did not let such difficulties deter us. These sons of toil need the picture study, even more than the children of the rich, to bring beauty into starved lives. We had come for their benefit, not to arrange an elaborate art entertainment for a cultured audience.

We began our program by fastening to the blackboard a large photograph of the Sower, and telling the familiar but ever new story of seed-time and harvest: how the sower carries in his bag the precious grain to feed many hungry folk; how the seed falls into the ground to soften and swell and push up a tiny shoot; how the blades grow into tall, strong stalks which bear the wheat-ears; how the grain ripens and is made into flour, and finally into fragrant loaves of bread. The sower’s task is far-reaching in its results, and he regards the planting season very seriously. The story made every boy in the room want to be a sower, and we called up a little fellow to the desk and posed him just below the picture. The rest of the children formed an expectant audience, looking from picture to poser to pronounce upon the merits of the reproduction. The small sower was given a half-tone print to examine carefully, and then he manfully stepped forth as if to his task. The teacher’s large shopping-bag was slung over his left arm and we taught him how to fling his right arm to and fro to scatter the seed, describing the are of a circle in the motion. After repeating this action several times, we arrested his arm at the proper point to imitate the gesture of the picture. We were well satisfied with his success, and if his tremulous smile was not quite like the solemn dignity of the Norman peasant, it was certainly pleasant to see.

Titian’s Lavinia now replaced the Sower on the

MADAME LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER
THE SOWER
famous pictures as posed by school children

wall, and the children listened to the story of the old Venetian painter’s devotion to his motherless daughter. I told them how he loved to dress her in pretty clothes to make pictures of her; how he used to send for her when he was entertaining his guests in the garden and let her bring luscious fruits for their refreshment. When the question came, “Would any little girl like to play Lavinia?” every girl in the room was at our disposal. A little Jewess with kinky hair and round face came nearest to the type, but her “middy blouse” made her impossible. The child who wore the right kind of dress (as to cut) had little sticks of arms too weak to lift a tray of fruit. Here was a dilemma till the resourceful teacher hit upon the simple expedient of having the two exchange dresses for a few minutes. Lavinia advanced shyly, but forgot herself in the absorbing occupation of arranging the fruit just as in the picture. We had supplied a ten-cent silver tray for the purpose. Carefully but decidedly the child placed each apple, then set the lemon aslant in the foreground, and laid on top the pink cotton rose we gave her. Then she took a long, steady look at the picture, as she was bidden, lifted the tray to the level of the forehead, turned her face to the audience, and behold Lavinia in the flesh, With instinctive grace she had poised the tray in exactly the right way, her plump arms describing the same curve as the original Lavinia’s. An immediate success like this is a rare inspiration. Perhaps one ought not to expect to reach perfection twiee. When the photographer came the next week to catch Lavinia in his camera, the long delay in setting up the instrument wearied the child, and stiffened her muscles. At the critical moment she clutched the tray bravely but awkwardly, and did not lift it high enough to produce the right effect. So our best picture of this little school Lavinia is only a memory.

The story of the Fruit Venders appealed mightily to a class of children who themselves earn money by selling fruit, candy, and papers. As the photograph was pinned up, it brought forth a murmur of approval: the subject was within the experience of the audience. The girl of the picture has sold out her stock and is counting over her earnings, while the boy, who is but just setting forth, looks on with generous pleasure in her success. It is a charming tale of cheerful industry and good fellowship. We chose a boy and girl of the same relative ages, who were much in earnest to do their parts well. An empty wastebasket was rather an inadequate representation of the young merchant’s large stock of Andalusian grapes, but it was of the proper size and shape for the pose, and happily the children’s imagination was equal to the supply of this trifling deficiency.

Madame Le Brun and her Daughter requires no accessories, and of course we did not disrobe our model like the lady of the picture. The photograph brought forth the story of another idolized artist’s daughter, the painter this time being a charming Frenchwoman. A picture or a story illustrating family love is always welcomed by the teacher as an opportunity to impress an obvious lesson. For this

LAVINIA
Berlin Gallery

group we arranged a teacher with an affectionate little girl who was only too pleased to embrace the object of her affection. The subject is not quite so easy as it looks: the lady must be seated at a height to require the child while standing to reach up a bit to bring her head to the mother’s chin. The little arm must fall within the bend of the larger arm, to form a parallel curve. When the group is arranged the outline should describe the form of a pyramid.

Rubens’s Sons is a lovely presentation of brotherly companionship. When this picture was put up, I explained the rich velvet and satin costumes as the Flemish court dress of the seventeenth century. The artist was court painter to the Archduke Albert and Isabella, and was in high favor with royalties. So he gave his eldest son the name of his patron, and both boys enjoyed all the advantages of his wealth and station. But fine clothes did not seem to spoil them as they sometimes do less sensible lads; their frank round faces make them very likable. It happened that one of the boys in our school was an Albert, and he was eager to play the part of Albert Rubens. For the younger boy, whose name was Nicholas, we found a lad of proportionate height. The two took their places below the picture. Of course boys are not expected to wear velvet and satin in school, and our models were not at all embarrassed by their shabbiness. They were proud and pleased with the honor, and blissfully unconscious of any incongruity between their threadbare suits and the elegant attire of their prototypes. Indeed, for the time being they fancied. themselves dressed like the picture. As they looked at the print we asked each in turn, “How are the feet placed?” “Where is the right hand?” “Where the left?” and at every inquiry, the member in question assumed the proper position. A curious detail in the picture is the captive goldfinch whose perch is held by the younger boy. To secure a similar use of the hands we took a school ruler. It occurred to me afterwards that a more pictorial substitute would have been a small flag, or perhaps a whirling paper “windmill.”

The picture of Alice needs but little explanation to the average school girl. Skipping rope is one of the favorite games which never loses its fascination. To substitute a ribbon for a rope and draw it tightly across the back seems a simple matter. Yet the picture is hard to make satisfactory simply because it requires entire self-forgetfulness to free it from stiffness. The original Alice is having a delightful time with no thought of looking pretty. Our little Alice, when practicing privately in the school hall, threw herself into the game with charming abandon and grace, not unworthy of the original. But when the eyes of the schoolroom were focused upon her, she lost her charm. Only a premiere danseuse would feel at ease under such circumstances.

We carried the picture program from grade to grade, and in each room made a special hit with some one subject. With older classes we look more pains to explain the lines of the composition, illustrating the idea by simple diagrams on the blackboard. The counterbalancing diagonals in the figure of the Sower, as well as of Alice, the pyramidal outline of the group of the Fruit Venders and Madame Le Brun and her Daughter, the curves of Lavinia’s swaying body and uplifted arm, were all pointed out in the pictures and in the models. A six-subject program is inordinately long, and was permitted only for purposes of experiment. Under ordinary circumstances, in the schoolroom, a single picture at a time, like a single dramatic game or a story, is quite enough for an occasional exercise. A pleasant device for giving all the children a chance to take part is to have the girls all standing together for the Lavinia pose, and the boys all together for the Sower. A single girl and boy may then be called out to pose for the class.

When we see how much can be done with the game of picture-posing in the school, it is easy to imagine the almost endless possibilities for its enjoyment in the home. Here there is no need of haste, as in the schoolroom, and time and thought may go towards perfecting the result. Here, too, are facilities for accessories and costumes to complete the faithfulness of the reproduction. The repertory of subjects can be greatly enlarged. Many pictures, impracticable in the schoolroom for lack of theatrical properties, can be worked out easily in the home. With a large family of children or a neighborhood circle, it may be developed as far as one may wish. The effect is enhanced by the use of a frame.

It is important to hold the children to a strict ideal of accuracy in the essentials. For this reason a single picture should be done over and over again. We become fond of certain ones, as of certain oft-repeated songs. Every attempt ought to better previous efforts, and all the family must learn to be very critical. Every detail of the composition should be examined, remembering that nothing is too small to have a reason for its introduction. The angle at which a hat is set, the direction of the eyes, even the length of a ribbon, may seriously affect the success of the picture.

Picture-posing opens a very interesting class of subjects for the amateur photographer. When his ingenuity is taxed for new ideas, he can find pleasure and profit in reproducing the compositions of the masters. If he has groups of figures to arrange, he may interest his sitters in posing à la some famous portrait group of an old master.

The subjects for picture games cannot be chosen at random. A great deal of thought must go into the selection. Millet’s figures are admirably adapted to the purpose. They have the plastic qualities of sculpture, and by merely reproducing attitude and gesture, the poser suggests the essential quality of the original. Other artists have made much of costume, and the success of the reproduction depends upon the careful study of these details. This is the case with Van Dyck and Velasquez. The English and Spanish royalties whom they painted would never be recognized without their court finery, for there is little distinctive in their attitude or gesture. Many famous portrait heads by the old masters are remembered for their quaint or fantastic headgear: the so-called Beatrice d’Este with her gold-meshed hair-net; Beatrice Cenci, with her big turban; Holbein’s Jane Seymour, with her pointed cap; Botticelli’s Lucrezia Tornabuoni, with the pearl festoons and strange aigrette. Some of Reynolds’s child pictures are delightful subjects within reach of all. Penelope Boothby’s mob cap and lace mitts, Simplicity’s cap, and the Strawberry Girl’s turban are easily imitated. Of course, the kind of portrait painting which depends upon psychological interest is quite beyond the province of our simple game.

An elaborate landscape composition is also obviously impossible in house tableaux without painted scenery, and it is best not to be too ambitious in this direction, keeping to the simplest settings. An out-of-doors program may be arranged in the summer, making a unique entertainment. Then the Sower, and the Lark, Murillo’s Beggar Boys, and some of Reynolds’s portraits can be rendered with most satisfactory effect.

After a few experiments in picture-posing, children will enjoy selecting their own subjects, rummaging through illustrated books and magazines for their material. The following lists may be helpful as a beginning:—

 

Single Girl Figures—

Titian’s Lavinia.

Chase’s Alice.

Reynolds’s Penelope Boothby, Age of Innocence, Miss Bowles, Strawberry Girl.

Bouguereau’s Broken Pitcher.

Greuze’s Broken Pitcher.

Madame Le Brun’s Girl with Muff.

Hoecker’s Girl with Cat.

Breton’s Lark, the Gleaner, the Shepherd’s Star.

Girl portraits requiring careful costuming—

Old Italian—Beatrice d’Este.

Titian’s Bella.

Van Dyck’s Princess Mary (detail of the group of Children of Charles I).

Velasquez’s Princess Margaret (bust in the Louvre).

Velasquez’s Princess Margaret (full length in Vienna).

Velasquez’s Princess Maria Theresa (full length in Madrid).

Single Boy Figure—

Millet’s Sower.

French’s Minute Man (sculpture).

Velasquez’s Mœnippus, Æsop.

Manet’s Boy with a Sword.

Reynolds’s Little Samuel.

Volk’s Young Pioneer.

Sully’s Torn Hat (head only).

Cuyp’s boy head.

Boy portraits requiring careful costuming—

Gainsborough’s Blue Boy.

Millais’s Bubbles.

Watteau’s Gilles of the Louvre (without accessory figures).

Van Dyck’s William of Nassau.

Van Dyck’s Prince Charles (detail of the group of Children of Charles I).

Van Dyck’s Prince James or "Baby Stuart" (detail of the above group).

Paris Bordone. Boy’s head.

Two Boys—

Rubens’s Sons.

Millais’s Princes in the Tower.

Boy and Girl—

Murillo’s Fruit Venders.

Millet’s Potato Planters, Angelus, and Going to Work.

Boughton’s John Alden and Priscilla.

Millais’s Huguenot Lovers.

Van Dyck’s Prince William and Princess Mary (elaborate costumes).

Older Girl and Small Child—

Bouguereau’s Sister and Brother.

Millet’s Knitting Lesson.

Madame Le Brun and her Daughter.

Sergeant Kendall’s An Interlude.

Older Girl and Two Children—

Abbot Thayer’s Caritas and Virgin Enthroned.