Good morning everyone.
Welcome to the National Portrait Gallery.
My name is Brianna White and I manage the school and teacher programs here at NPG.
And what I thought we would do this morning is take a look at two portraits in the Portrait
Gallery's collection and discuss our “Learning to Look” strategy of compare and contrast.
So in your hands, you have a copy of an engraving that is in our collection.
The real image is not on view right now because it is a print which means it's only allowed
to be on view for a couple of months at a time and then has to go way into storage.
So that's why you have the copy.
And the other image as you can see in front of you is a painting.
The one thing that I would ask of you when we talk about this strategy is don't read
the label text.
We are going to focus on the portraits this morning, okay?
And all I want you to do right now is silently consider to yourselves the similarities and
differences between the portrait on the wall and the portrait that you're holding.
Okay let's talk similarities first.
What is similar between these two objects?
Her pose.
Okay, so her pose, so the fact that she’s sort of upright looking off in one direction.
Okay excellent, what else?
The clothing.
Okay, what about the clothing is similar?
She has the collar, and both of the pieces, and the embroidered coat.
Okay excellent.
Is that a fan?
That she’s holding?
It is an ostrich feather fan.
So the lace collar is similar in both pieces.
She's holding an ostrich feather fan and then the style of the clothing is similar.
Okay, what else?
The inscription of date.
Here.
Okay, so at the age of 21 in 1616, that's similar in both pieces.
There’s an oval shape in both of them with writing on the inside.
Okay, excellent, excellent.
And there is a difference and we'll get to that in a little bit but we do see this writing
in this oval shape as well as the piece that you’re holding.
Okay.
Her gaze also meets the viewer in the same way that her gaze in the print is oriented.
Okay, okay, good.
The hand, since it is distinctive, I just noticed that being the same in both.
Right.
Right, does everybody notice that?
The way that she's holding this fan is very similar and also very awkward.
I get that a lot when I talk to people about this particular image.
Okay.
We have similar writing at the bottom, right?
And what else?
The earring.
Absolutely.
It’s part of the costume I guess.
Absolutely.
So we do see the earring in both portraits along with the hat as well.
Okay.
And the hairstyle.
Okay so and the hairstyle as well, excellent.
We have a little bit of the curl coming down from both sides.
Is there anything else that's similar?
Okay let's talk differences.
Mr. Cook?
Her face looks more European to me in the painting and less European to me…
In the engraving.
Okay, so can you explain that?
What do you mean by European?
The shape of her nose and of her mouth is different.
There's a…eyebrows are a little heavier perhaps in the etching?
Cheekbones as well.
Right.
Okay.
What about the cheekbones?
Mr. Cook, as you look at the portrait, she does look European.
In this, the print, she looks more Hispanic to me, unless it’s the coloring of the print.
Okay.
Okay so the fact that this piece is color this piece is black and white.
And then what you were saying about the cheekbones.
Take a look at the cheekbones in the painting versus the engraving.
Describe the cheekbones in the engraving.
They’re very sharp.
They’re defined, right?
Okay, excellent.
What else?
There’s a cleft in her chin in the engraving where there is not necessarily on the painting.
Okay excellent.
So again more of these defined features in the engraving versus the painting.
Softer in the painting, does everybody agree with that?
Yes.
Okay.
And also the expression.
If you look at the expression versus the print, she looks sad here.
Okay, okay.
So more…
if she looks sad in the engraving, then how is she looking in the painting?
To me, regal.
Okay.
Okay, okay, interesting.
Interesting.
Okay.
What else?
Differences?
I feel like the hat looks so different because the black blends into the brown background.
You don’t see the tallness.
And it’s unusual looking in the print where it just sort of blends into the painting.
Exactly and what detail is in the hat in the engraving that is not found in the painting?
The feather.
The feather, exactly, and that very well could be because of the background and how the hat
does blend into the background.
Yes Crystal?
And the engraving is more elongated.
Both the round, the surround, and then also the figure itself.
That is an excellent point.
If you notice the words that are around the painting are the same that’s in the engraving
but they've just been sort of squished on each side and this whole portrait is just
more of a square verses the engraving.
So the figure in the print is definitely elongated, absolutely.
And has a much bigger head in proportion to…
Yes…The proportions are really….
They are quite different aren't they?
Yep.
So maybe in the painting she looks more regal because her body is fuller and heavier….
Okay, okay.
And that's another interesting comment.
She looks fuller here, right?
And this goes back to what Ian was saying about her looking more European.
Her lips are very pink, right?
She's got this sort of a roundedness to her cheeks.
And if you notice too, if you look at the engraving right here, this detail where the
overcoat meets the under coat and you look at it here, what difference do you see?
You don’t quite see it in the painting.
Right, it's not really a separate piece, right?
It almost looks as if her arm is a much more full and rounded in the painting.
There isn’t that sort of separation, if you will.
What else?
In the engraving I feel like the costume almost looks like the top part is armor.
It looks very hard.
Yeah, so if you could touch this fabric that’s in the engraving, you're thinking that it
feels like armor.
What else do you think it might feel like?
Very stiff, like a heavy brocade.
Yeah.
You can see that embroidery in the print, sort of light, feathery motif that’s missing
from the painting.
Exactly but here, as we said before, you get color.
So if you could touch this fabric, what do you think it's going to feel like?
Soft.
Okay, soft, velvety, right?
So there is a difference between the two garments, okay?
What else?
Yes?
I also feel like in the engraving I can almost imagine the roundness of the buttons and there's
maybe a bracelet on her right hand.
But on the painting, it feels very flat.
Flattened.
Okay, so a three-dimensionality you can… you have a sense of here.
Is that accurate?
I don’t know, I think I feel it more in the engraving.
I agree with that, yeah.
I agree that you can almost see her defined bust in the print and you can almost see a
bodice underneath this sort of capelet that she has on, which is completely missing from
the painted version.
Even the… background almost makes it feel in the round.
Right, okay, okay.
Any other differences?
Are we missing anything?
The wording in the bottom.
It says she was married to the Honorable Mr.Thomas Rolff and in the engraving it says the Honorable
Mr. John Rolff....
So isn't that an interesting detail?
And that actually leads me to my next question which is that one of these portraits is based
from life.
And when I say based from life meaning that the artist and the sitter came together to
create a portrait, okay?
And one of these portraits is based from the one that's based from life.
So it's a copy, okay?
So which one came first and why?
I would say the print came first.
Okay, and why?
Based on the discrepancy that Geri mentioned, we know that that information is correct in
the print, that she was married to John Rolff and not Thomas Rolff, so maybe when a later
painter started to paint this portrait of Pocahontas based off the print, maybe there
was a problem in translation and he just copied the words wrong or incorrectly.
Exactly, exactly, and that is one of the reasons why our curators know that the engraving came
first and the painting came second.
But there is that one or more very big clue, one more very big clue.
And it’s totally visual.
How about the fact that it is more Europeanized?
You got it.
For a different audience.
Absolutely, absolutely.
For a different audience.
So the engraving that you're holding comes from a book.
The book is called “Baziliologia”.
It’s translated to “A Booke of Kings.”
The “Baziliologia” was published in 1618 in England and it was basically a book of
kings and queens and notables of the day.
And this image of Pocahontas is found in that book.
It's also I think probably one of the oldest portraits that the Portrait Gallery has in
our collection.
So this print is considered to be the only known life likeness of Pocahontas that was
ever created, okay?
And we can tell that based on these two images because this is the accurate representation
of Pocahontas.
Pocahontas did not look like this.
She was obviously not a white woman.
And she has been Europeanized and Anglicized for this particular painting, okay?
So those are our two big clues.
This mistake, although very small, turns out to be very big.
And that the visual image itself, okay?
I think one of the interesting things about this particular image was that it was created
for Pocahontas’s descendants.
So it came down in her family for many generations after.
So if you were going to go meet the President of the United States, what would you wear?
Your best.
Your best?
Your Sunday’s best?
Yes.
Okay, so is this – are both these – is this Pocahontas in Virginia?
Is this Pocahontas in England?
What do you think?
Pocahontas in England.
Remember, she went in 1616 with her husband and her young son and was presented to James
I at court.
So that's what you see here, right?
This is not something that she would wear in Virginia.
So she’s got the Stuart-style hat, the ostrich feather fan, that laced collar, which you
can only imagine how that must feel to wear.
And how many layers is she wearing?
She must be…at least two or three layers.
Right.
So we've got this red coat, right?
We've got this green undercoat.
And then we even have this lace which, I mean, leads me to believe that there's probably
at least another layer under that.
How do you think you're going to feel if you’re going to wear all of that?
[Laughter] Hot air restricted, that's right.
So this is the two portraits of Pocahontas that we have in our collection.
Another way to do a compare and contrast is to add Disney's Pocahontas into the mix because
that's a completely different likeness.
And I'll leave you with this one question which is which image which portrait do you
think is found in history textbooks?
Disney?
[Laughter] No.
Maybe Disney, but this one.
So it's one of the reasons why we like to compare and contrast these two images because
this is the image that students get to see all the time, yet it's not an accurate representation
of her.
Okay.
Thank you for coming today.
Thank you.