PPS Picturing America - Picturing Early America

PPS Picturing
America:
"Once let the black man get upon his
person the brass letter, U.S., let him get
an eagle on his button, and a musket on his
shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there
is no power on earth that can deny that he
has earned the right to citizenship."
Frederick Douglass
A Representation of America in the Robert
Shaw Memorial
General Objective
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It is the goal of this presentation to represent a portion of a unit of
study from the NEH's Picturing America series.
This unit along with the corresponding work in partnership with the
Carnegie Museums of Art will formulate a unique approach to Arts
integration in the Pittsburgh Public Schools middle school
curriculum
The focus of this lesson is:
Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial
by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Students will put themselves in the
shoes of the men of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment as they: read,
write, create a comic strip about these American heroes and render
sketches in response to their findings.
Subject Areas
Art & Culture: Visual Arts
History and Social Studies: U.S. History — Civil War and
Reconstruction
Standards Alignment
The Massachusetts 54th Regiment:
Honoring the Heroes
NAES-VisArts(5-8) 2
Using knowledge of structures and functions
NAES-VisArts(5-8) 4
Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
NCSS-5
Individuals, groups, and institutions. more
NCSS-6
Power, authority, and governance. more
*modify according to your state and/or district standards...
Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Charles McKim , The Robert
Shaw Memorial, 1884-1896 (Boston Common)
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Describe the main attributes of the product
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Link the product attributes to customer needs
Acitivities Related to the Work,
Including the 'gesture sketch'
http://www.artgraphica.net/free-art-lessons/wetcanvas/gesture-sketches/gesturesketches.htm
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Activity 1. Look and Think
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Activity 2. Read, Answer, and Discuss
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Activity 3. Strike a Pose!
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Assessment Activity 4. Create a Comic Strip
Objectives and Questions
Learning Objectives:
Students completing this unit should be able to:
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Understand how Saint-Gaudens expressed the heroism of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment in
the Shaw Memorial.
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Discuss the role that Robert Gould Shaw played in the Civil War.
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Discuss the impact that African American soldiers, particularly of the 54th Massachusetts
Regiment, had on the Civil War.
Guiding Questions:
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How did Saint-Gaudens show the heroism of a military regiment and their commander in the
Shaw Memorial?
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What characteristics did the men who served in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment possess?
How might a sculpture of your own depict Americans today in the military? Is it likely that
Why is it important to remember those who came before us and served their country?
Who might you follow as a leader in your community? How might yo see contemporary
works depicting our current war...?
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Explain the steps that now need to be taken
What
might
these
people
say?
http://mac110.assumption.edu/aas/Reports/harpftwagner.html
Representation of the Form of the Face
··Free on line drawing class
•
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The best Online Drawing courses.
Practice your Art for free!
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www.manolith.com
http://www.screwbald.com/tutorialgesture.htm
• ··Paint & Color Boston
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Sara Egan Studio Color Consulting
617.306.7614, Commercial and Res.
www.saraegan.com
*move to activity...gesture sketches
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
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Sculptor
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin in 1884 to a French shoemaker and Irish mother. As a
baby, his family moved to New York City. At 13 he was apprenticed to a cameo carver. He took free
evening art courses at Cooper Union and then studied in Paris at the Academy of Design, and the École
des Beaux-Arts. In 1870 he moved to Rome, began his art career, and met Augusta Homer, a cousin of
Winslow Homer. They married when he received his first major commission, to create a statue of
Admiral Farragut in Madison Square Park in New York.
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Robert Shaw Memorial
Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s first idea for a sculpture honoring Colonel Robert G. Shaw was an equestrian
statue. But, Shaw’s family rejected it as too pretentious for the 26-year old colonel. Then Saint-Gaudens
conceived a bas-relief (“bas” from the French for low) of Shaw with his men. During the twelve years
that Saint-Gaudens worked on this memorial, he sculpted 40 clay studies of African American heads but
only included 16 in the final sculpture. He bought a horse to use as a model. When it died, he rented
another from a stable. The relief of the horse and rider are a freestanding sculpture. Saint-Gaudens’s
friend, architect Charles Follen McKim, designed the architectural setting for the bronze sculpture.
Saint-Gaudens included allegorical symbols to suggest this sculpture’s meaning. The angel floating
above the soldiers holds an olive branch representing peace and poppies for death and remembrance.
Saint-Gaudens created a steady marching rhythm across the sculpture with the soldiers, horse, and
angel facing same direction, moving resolutely to the right. Overlapping figures create a sense of depth
and unity. Our eyes pick out and group the repeated shapes.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=790
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Related EDSITEment Lesson Plans
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··I've Just Seen a Face: Portraits
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··Images at War
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··An Introduction to the Relationship Between Composition and Content in the Visual Arts
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··Portrait of a Hero
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··The American Civil War: A “Terrible Swift Sword”
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Lesson 1: ··On the Eve of War: North vs. South
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Lesson 2: ··The Battles of the Civil War
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Lesson 3: ··Abraham Lincoln and Wartime Politics
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··The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom’s First Steps
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Selected EDSITEment Websites
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··Augustus Saint-Gaudens Shaw Memorial, 1900
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire
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··Digital Classroom (National Archives and Records Administration)
[http://www.archives.gov]
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··Teaching with Documents: Lesson Plans
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··Teaching With Documents: The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
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··American Originals (includes casualty list of the “54th,” photo of veterans with Shaw Memorial)
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··The National Gallery of Art
[http://www.nga.gov]
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··August Saint-Gaudens: The Shaw Memorial, School Arts: Looking/Learning
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··NGAKIDS – National Gallery (complete coverage of Shaw Memorial Exhibition with lesson plans)
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··National Park Service – History and Culture, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
[http://www.nps.gov/saga]
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··PBS American Masters
[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/]
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··American Masters Database; Visual Arts
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··Augustus Saint-Gaudens
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··Art History Resources on the Web: 19th Century
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··The Sculpture of Augustus St. Gaudens
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··Picturing America
Inspiration
The Shaw Memorial, in Boston Common, depicts a resonant,
courageous act of the Civil War, in which the first regiment of
African American soldiers recruited for the Union Army
fought a doomed battle on a South Carolina fortress.
Although Colonel Robert Shaw, on horseback, is prominent,
the bronze relief is the first American memorial dedicated to
individuals united for a cause, rather than to a single military
hero.
Le Finit!
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http://www.poets.org/
viewmedia.php/prmMID/15280
Parking spaces luxuriate like civic sandpiles in the heart of Boston. A girdle of orange, Puritanpumpkin colored girders braces the tingling Statehouse, ...
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http://www.poets.org/
viewmedia.php/prmMID/19585