Puzzle Looking Strategy: Learning to Look with the National Portrait Gallery
In this collection, we look at portraiture through the lens of the puzzle activity. This looking strategy allows participants to start with a small puzzle piece of a portrait to consider the details before looking at the whole object. This activity challenges participants to determine what they think they know and what they wonder about a portrait based on verbal descriptions of the puzzle pieces.
Visually rich portraits, with both objects and setting, are most effective when using this strategy.
Included in this collection are examples of portraits National Portrait Gallery educators have had success with when faciltiating the puzzle activity while teaching in the galleries: George Washington, Men of Progress, Shimomura Crossing the Delaware