Newcastle pupils exhibit at National Gallery

Young artists from a Newcastle school will have their work exhibited in the National Gallery, after drawing inspiration from a famous French painting.

The pupils from St Robert’s Catholic First School created their artwork as part of Take One Picture, which challenges primary school children across the country to produce work based around a single painting from the National Gallery’s collection.

Their creations can then be submitted to the National Gallery, with a select few chosen for exhibition.

“Take One Picture is the National Gallery’s programme for primary schools, which aims to inspire a life-long love of art and learning,” explained David Sutcliffe, Executive Headteacher at St Robert’s, which is part of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust.

“Every year they select a picture from the collection to inspire cross-curricular work in primary classrooms.”

This year’s painting was Surprised! by Henri Rousseau, which was produced in 1891 and depicts a tiger prowling through jungle undergrowth. 

While all classes at St Robert’s took part in the project, it was the Year 1 pupils that sent their artwork to the National Gallery. Their self portraits featured 3D binoculars and referenced activities that they had undertaken as part of the scheme.

“In Year 1, the children found the tiger in the painting fascinating,” continued Mr Sutcliffe. “They closely examined his face and tried to decide how he was feeling. The children considered whether he was being hunted or if he was the hunter.

“In the end, they decided he was being hunted. They wanted to hunt their own tigers in the playground, so they made binoculars out of toilet roll tubes and set about looking for wild animals outside.

“They then used crayons to draw faces onto templates to try and show how they might have felt if they had actually found a tiger. We used plastic cups to add the binoculars to our pictures.”

Twelve artists from St Robert’s had their work picked for the Take One Picture Exhibition, which will be held from 1 August to 1 September in Trafalgar Square as part of the Free Festival of Art.

It was a particularly impressive achievement, as over 300 schools participated in the programme this year – an increase of 60 per cent on 2023.

“This year, the Gallery received an extraordinary number of submissions from schools hoping their work would be considered for the annual exhibition in London; therefore, we were extremely proud to have our work shortlisted,” continued Mr Sutcliffe. 

“We were both surprised and delighted when we found out that we had been selected to be part of the exhibition.”

It was the fourth time the school had been involved.

“Initiatives like these are very important,” added Year 1 Teacher Alice Butler, who supported the children in the project, along with Teaching Assistant Lesley Thorne, and who will be visiting the exhibition.

“They expose the children to a variety of art, and help them to look at and think about art in new ways. It gives them some ownership and understanding of art that is held in national collections.

“The work in the Take One Picture Exhibition is always exhibited in very impressive ways, similar to the ways in which the work of great artists is displayed – this shows how highly valued the children’s work is.

“To have work displayed in the National Gallery is extremely prestigious.”