Portraits of Toussaint Louverture
Objectives:
Students will explore how artists can illustrate the same subject using
different styles and media.
The class will create a work of art focusing on color and how that
element contributes to the mood of the work.
Students will identify how works from different time periods can reflect
the culture in which they were made.
Two Portraits
Promises of Freedom contains two portraits of Toussaint Louverture (c.
1743 – 1803) the leader of the Haitian Revolution. Louverture used his
military and political brilliance to emancipate the slaves and establish
Haiti as a free, black-governed nation. This was the second occasion
after the American Revolution for a New World country to win
permanent independence from a European colonial power. A successful
slave revolt leading to the founding a new nation was a shock to the
institution of slavery in the rest of the Americas. General Louverture
became an important hero for the African Diaspora from the end of the
18th century on. One of the portraits in the exhibit was created by an
unknown artist during the abolitionist era. The other was made in
1986 by Jacob Lawrence (1917 – 2000) who studied the Haitian
Revolution and created a series of paintings about the life of Toussaint
Louverture.
Jacob Lawrence, General Toussaint L’Ouverture (1986)
Unknown, Toussaint Louverture (1830 – 1840)
Have the students compare these two portraits of Toussaint
Louverture considering each artist’s use of lines, shading, color,
medium, and other qualities. Do they detect a specific mood or feeling
from each work? What personal characteristics do they learn about the
subject in each image?
Have each student write what they observe that is unique to the Jacob
Lawrence picture in the left circle, and to the older portrait in the right
circle. The things they have in common should be listed in the center
section. Discuss as a class what they noticed.
Make a Portrait in the Style of Jacob Lawrence
You will need: Portraits the students have chosen, use of a copier,
poster paints, brushes, and cups for paint and water
1.
Have students find and bring in a portrait such as a drawing or
photograph.
2.
Make an enlarged, light photocopy for them to paint over.
3.
Each student should pick 3 to 5 colors for the figure and one for
the background, they may want to consider pairs of complementary
colors such as red-green or yellow-purple.
4.
Then plan on what order they will add their colors. Lawrence’s
system of painting was to work with one color at a time.
5.
Students may find it best to paint the face first, clothes, and
then background on their portrait.
6.
Share the finished portraits around the class. Discuss what they
see in the students’ pictures compared to the source versions.
7.
You may have the students make another painting in the same
way but with different colors in a later session.
Images from the Arthur Primas Collection by Landau Traveling Exhibitions