Sensorial: Portrait, Landscape and Still Life

One way to explore art with your children at home is to teach them the difference between a portrait, a landscape and a still life. In a Montessori classroom, we would do this by stating the definition of each concept and then have examples of art works that fit into each category as a way of explaining the differences.

You could use the following definitions as a guide:

Portrait: a picture or a painting of a person, usually showing a face.

Landscape: a picture or a painting of natural scenery.

Still Life: a picture or a painting of inanimate objects (an inanimate object is something that can’t move or isn’t alive).

Your child may, of course, have learnt this at school already in which case, simply find some of your favourite pictures and ask your child to place them in the correct category (to reinforce their learning and curiosity). Have a look at the below tutorial by My Montessori Works to see the lesson application:

As part of this little lesson, you could also ask your child if they’d like to draw their own portrait, landscape or still life, or perhaps take them to a gallery and have a look at ‘real life’ examples.

If you’d like further information about this tutorial, feel free to contact us at info@saintandrewsmontessori.com. We’re happy to answer any questions.

Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash