What does a portrait tell us?
What are we beyond our appearance?
What is important?
Portraits
We are exploring sculptural portraits!
What is a portrait, and what can it tell us about a person? In this micro-lesson, we start from the idea that portraits have interested people throughout history. We analyse four sculptural portraits to understand what the portraits tell us and how they communicate it. Two of the portraits tell us about a specific person, while the other two explore more universal human experiences and what it means to be human.
Finally, you are encouraged to create or sketch an idea for a portrait of someone who is important in your life. Alternatively, you can choose an emotion and represent it in a lump of clay, using your imagination and experimenting as you go.
The portraits in this episode are:
Zlatan, 2019 by Peter Linde. Photo:
Rebecka experimenting in clay. Photo: Palle Lindqvist.
Educational material:
Available from august 2026