Take One Picture

Issued June 2024

1 August – 1 September 2024
Part of the Free Festival of Art , North Terrace, Trafalgar Square
Admission free

This summer, the National Gallery will showcase children’s artworks in the annual Take One Picture exhibition, with pupils across the country having taken inspiration from Rousseau’s Surprised!

For nearly thirty years the Gallery has been inviting primary school children nationwide to focus on one painting from the collection and respond creatively, following their own questions and ideas, and this year’s programme has been the biggest yet: 300 schools took part – more than a 60% increase from last year. The programme aims to put art at the centre of children’s learning across the curriculum, inspiring creativity, curiosity and a lifelong connection with artists’ work. By exhibiting a selection of the projects produced, the programme also provides a platform for celebrating children’s work, building pride and confidence in their achievements, and fostering a sense of ownership and belonging in the Gallery.

This year’s painting, Rousseau’s 'Surprised!', is perennially one of the Gallery’s top 20 most popular and visited paintings. Rousseau produced the work without ever leaving his native France; the foliage is a mix of domestic house plants and tropical varieties, which he had seen at the Botanical Gardens in Paris. An amateur artist who painted as a hobby and failed to get serious recognition from his contemporaries, Rousseau is now seen as a pioneer of the 'naïve art' movement.

Year 4 at Langland Community School, Milton Keynes, were drawn to the tiger’s worried expression and wondered if he was in danger from poachers. The children researched the endangerment of tigers and their habitat through deforestation and wrote speeches to persuade people to save the world’s tigers. Reflecting on the class’s adoption of a tiger through a conservation charity, one child said ‘I felt so proud that we could help out animals in the rainforest’, while another said ‘the project has made me more interested in and appreciative of art.’

When children in Reception at Wembrook Primary School, Warwickshire, were asked why the painting might be called Surprised!, one child thought it was ‘because the tiger is scared – not all surprises are nice.’ The class discussed emotions in circle time, practiced different facial expressions in mirrors and shared times they had been surprised. The children used photos of their surprised faces in their artwork, hidden behind careful drawings of leaves inspired by local plants. The school’s art lead said ‘We are extremely proud of the efforts of the children and their artistic talents. For some of the children they wouldn't have the opportunity to visit an art gallery; to visit London and to have their own work on display is a once in a lifetime opportunity for them.’

This year’s exhibition space takes the display outside the walls of the Gallery and into Trafalgar Square, running alongside Summer on the Square, creating the Free Festival of Art, made by children for children. Since 2020, Summer on the Square has introduced families and children to the Gallery’s art and new ways of looking at it, through artistic and creative workshops. The programme has been extremely successful in attracting new audiences to the Gallery: last year, 30% of those who attended had never before visited the Gallery, and 80% of families who took part reported feeling creatively inspired afterwards.

Karen Eslea, Head of Learning and National Programmes at the National Gallery, said ‘Both 'Take One Picture' and 'Summer on the Square' are brilliant ways for us to reach children and help them develop an early knowledge and curiosity around art and give them a sense of ownership of the Gallery. We’re delighted to be bringing this year’s exhibition out onto Trafalgar Square and it’s been amazing to see the different things that have inspired children this year, from the animals’ environments to the physical feel of the foliage.’

Take One Picture is generously supported by Columbia Threadneedle Foundation.

With additional support from the John Armitage Charitable Trust

Notes to editors

About Take One Picture

Launched in 1995, Take One Picture is the National Gallery’s countrywide scheme for primary schools. Each year the Gallery focuses on one painting from the collection to inspire cross-curricular work in primary classrooms. The Gallery offers one-day training sessions which give teachers the opportunity to learn about the focus picture and explore the pedagogy and practice of using paintings as a rich resource for child-led, investigative learning. Each year a selection of work produced by schools based on the painting is shown at the National Gallery and published on the website. In order to be considered for the display, schools submit examples of how a whole class or school has used the picture to inspire projects that are child-led and cross-curricular, and through which children have learned a new process and involved people or places in the local community.

Further information about the programme, related CPD courses for teachers, and the annual Take One Picture exhibition at the National Gallery can be found at nationalgallery.org.uk/take-one-picture

About Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of actively managed investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2000 people including over 450 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, it manages £373bn of assets (at 31 December 2019) across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.

Columbia Threadneedle Foundation is committed to investing in the community through partnerships that create positive social impact. It focuses on charities that use education, art and sport to engender lasting social change. Common threads in its programmes and charity partners include the ability to build skills and confidence, challenge perspectives, and broaden horizons.

www.columbiathreadneedle.com

Schools represented in the exhibition

Alderman’s Green Primary School, Coventry
Altmore Infant School, London
Borrow Wood Primary School, Derby
Brockworth Primary Academy, Gloucester
Cedar Road Primary School, Northampton
Chenies School, Hertfordshire
Cooper and Jordan Church of England Primary School, West Midlands
Dalmilling Primary School, Scotland
Dame Bradbury’s School, Stephen Perse Foundation, Essex
Downshall Primary School, Essex
Durham High School, Durham
East Hunsbury Primary School, Northampton
East Preston Infant School, West Sussex
Falconer’s Hill Academy, Northamptonshire
Grange Park School, Kent
Grimes Dyke Primary School, Leeds
Headley Park Primary School, Bristol
Hill Top CE Primary School and Nursery, Bradford
Holy Trinity CE Primary School, London
John Bunyan Primary School and Nursery, Essex
King William Street Church of England Primary School, Wiltshire
King’s College School, Murcia, Spain
King's Meadow School, Oxfordshire
Langland Community School, Milton Keynes
Lighthorne Heath Primary School, Warwickshire
Mab’s Cross Community Primary School, Wigan
Mayfield Primary School, Greater Manchester
Micklem Primary School, Hertfordshire
Moorlands Junior School, Cheshire
Moreland Primary School, London
Morgans Primary School and Nursery, Hertfordshire
Morley Memorial Primary School, Cambridge
Outwood Primary Academy Alne, York
Peasedown St John Primary School, Bath
Pencalenick School, Truro
Pimlico Primary, London
Preston Park Primary School, London
Quay Academy, East Riding of Yorkshire
Ramsgate Arts Primary School, Kent
St Philip’s Catholic Primary School, Leeds
St Robert’s Catholic First School, Northumberland
Sutton Valence Preparatory School, Kent
The Jenny Hammond Primary School, London
The Queen’s Lower School, Chester
The Sele First School, Northumberland
Two Mile Ash School, Milton Keynes
Wellsprings Primary School, Somerset
Wembrook Primary School, Warwickshire
Weston Favell C of E Primary School, Northampton
Woodford Halse Church of England Primary Academy, Northamptonshire

Press enquiries

National Gallery Press Office email press@nationalgallery.org.uk 
Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/