Key Stage

KS2 (ENG), KS2 (NI), CfE L2 (SCO), PS3 (WAL)
Art term

Fauvism, Post‐Impressionism
Created by

The Superpower of Looking
Topics

Plants and flowers, Interiors

National Curriculum for England

Art and design
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
- Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms
- Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
- Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques

Northern Ireland Curriculum

Art and design
- Look at and talk about the work of artists, designers and craftsworkers from their own and other cultures; appreciate methods used in the resource materials and use their appreciation to stimulate personal ideas and engage with informed art making
- Develop their understanding of the visual elements of colour, tone, line, shape, form, space, texture and pattern to communicate their ideas
- Evaluate their own and others’ work and how it was made, explain and share their ideas, discuss difficulties and review and modify work to find solutions

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence

Art and design
- I can create and present work that shows developing skill in using the visual elements and concepts (EXA 2-03a)
- Through observing and recording from my experiences across the curriculum, I can create images and objects which show my awareness and recognition of detail (EXA 2-04a)
- Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design (EXA 2-05a)
- I can respond to the work of artists and designers by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others' work (EXA 2-07a)

National Curriculum for Wales (2008)

Art and design
- Describe and make comparisons between their own work and that of others
- Experiment with and examine the methods used by other artists from different periods, places and cultures
- Evaluate the methods and results of their own work and that of their fellow pupils
- Pupils should be stimulated and inspired by: other artists; methods and processes; media; styles; ideas
- Explore, experiment with and apply the elements of the visual, tactile and sensory language of art, craft and design which include: line, tone, colour, pattern, texture, shape and form

New Curriculum for Wales (2022)

Expressive Arts

Exploring the expressive arts is essential to developing artistic skills and knowledge and it enables learners to become curious and creative individuals.

Progression step 3:

- I can explore the effects that a range of creative techniques, materials, processes, resources, tools and technologies have on my own and others' creative work.

- I can explore how creative work can represent, document, share and celebrate personal, social and cultural identities.

- I can explore and describe how artists and creative work communicate mood, feelings and ideas and the impact they have on an audience.

Responding and reflecting, both as artist and audience, is a fundamental part of learning in the expressive arts.

Progression step 3:

- I can give and consider constructive feedback about my own creative work and that of others, reflecting on it and making improvements where necessary.

- I can apply knowledge and understanding of context, and make connections between my own creative work and creative work by other people and from other places and times.

- I can reflect upon how artists have achieved effects or communicated moods, emotions and ideas in their work.

The Pink Tablecloth c.1924–1925

Henri Matisse (1869–1954)

Glasgow Life Museums

About this resource

This is one of the lesson resources in The Superpower of Looking on still life. It focuses on Henri Matisse's 1924–1925 painting The Pink Tablecloth.

These lesson resources are also in the still life theme:

How to use this resource

To teach this lesson, download the teachers' notes on a separate device, screen or print them off. Have this webpage open on your screen or whiteboard and use the prompts in the teachers' notes to guide your students through the lesson.

Art theme: still life

Historically, 'still life' was a category of painting typically featuring objects such as fruit, flowers, insects and/or countless collectables. Some objects were invested with symbolic value, e.g. the flower can be a metaphor of life and death – beautiful in bloom, but quick to fade. Paintings were traditionally small in scale to hang in people's homes rather than in public spaces.

In recent times, still life appears in art in various forms from the abstracted (simplified but still recognisable) to the entirely abstract (not recognisable as anything in reality, but perhaps reduced to its essential shape or basic form). Still life can even be represented in the form of the 'found object' (an actual vase or table, etc.) and assembled and documented to become 'art'.

Contextual background for teachers

The Pink Tablecloth (1924–1925)
Henri Matisse (1869–1954)

Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: H 60.3 x W 81 cm

Henri Matisse often painted traditional subject matter, and this still life is no exception. His innovation was to paint them in new and experimental ways. This still life is abstracted, meaning we can very easily recognise the objects as taken from real life, but their forms have been simplified to such an extent that we no longer find them believable or realistic.

In simplifying shapes and removing the illusion of three-dimensional space, the artist emphasises his use of colour as a decorative tool, and as an expression of mood. Rather than disguise his brushwork, Matisse has announced his mark-making and revealed the process of painting and his feelings through colour and shape.

Spatially, there is a degree of conflict here as some objects follow the rules of perspective (e.g. the ellipsis on the fruit bowl), while others appear two-dimensional because they are not modelled in three-dimensional space. Do any of the objects cast a shadow? The tabletop is slightly angled to indicate recession, but what is the actual effect?

Look, describe and discuss

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

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

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.

Nudge questions

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

Would you put anything breakable or valuable on this tabletop? Why or why not?
Is this a realistic painting? Why or why not? Does a painting have to look realistic for it to be described as a good painting? Is how a painting makes us feel more important than how it looks?
If you were transported into the painting, what might you be able to smell?
How would you describe the mood of this painting and why?
Do you think people thought Matisse's painting was very good when he painted it?

Watch this video

In this video, writer Densise Mina uses her own 'Superpower of Looking' to explore The Pink Tablecloth.

Ask your students these questions before watching the video to support close looking and listening:

Did Denise see anything you hadn't spotted yet?
What else did you notice about the painting when watching the film?
Denise said she loves looking at the painting and it reminds her of being on holiday. How does it make you feel? What does it remind you of?

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Questions from The Superpower of Looking Kit

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

Use The Superpower of Looking Kit to ask questions about the artwork.

For this artwork, you will focus on:

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 may like to introduce knowledge from the contextual background for teachers at this point.

Everyone learning

You can find out more about The Superpower of Looking^® SEND/ASD/ALN 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

Create a still life arrangement. Which objects will your students choose to place in their still life? Students could record their arrangement by photographing it or drawing it in their sketchbook.
Create a still life collage by cutting out the shapes of objects from coloured papers, before sticking them down with glue. Students might choose to rearrange Matisse's still life or to include their own choice of objects instead.

Listen

Listen to excerpts from the ballet suite Les Biches by French composer Francis Poulenc. The music was composed in the early 1920s, like Matisse's painting. How does the music make students feel? Which music would they choose to play on a day filled with bright sunshine? (This performance took place outside London's National Gallery in 2019!)

Touch

Feel the textures of the objects in the painting: tablecloth, vase, flowers and fruit.
What do students smell when they handle objects from the painting? Do these smells make them want to take a seat at Matisse's table?

Move

Imagine who will sit at the table in the painting. Invite students to move as if they're using the objects placed on Matisse's table. What will happen in their scene?
Take it in turns to mime using an object in the painting. Can other students guess which object it is?

Communicate

In pairs, list the colours found in the painting. What new names would they give to these colours (e.g. cherry blossom pink, peacock blue)?
Learn the Makaton sign or British Sign Language for 'lemon'.

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.

An old woman cooking eggs

Yayoi Kusama's spotty pumpkin

Rachel Ruysch's flowers and insects

Glasgow Museums: 'The Pink Tablecloth'

Video: Henri Matisse in 60 Seconds | Royal Academy

Tate Kids: Who is Henri Matisse?

Seeing the light: the Fauves and the allure of Collioure 19 July 2019, James Trollope
Henri Matisse's 'Notre-Dame' 29 June 2020, Ben Luke
Millennial pink: the artists who got there first 7 September 2017, Molly Tresadern
A tale of two paintings: Monet, Leslie Hunter, and the pursuit of colour 16 October 2020, Jill Marriner