Cover lesson · Art · Year 9 · Intermediate

Tracing an artwork's source

DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content

Name: Class: Date:

Cover teacher — you need no subject knowledge

Print: this sheet, one per pupil, plus the stimulus sheet “One picture, seven search results”, one per pair. No computers needed — every result pupils need is summarised on the stimulus sheet. If the room has computers, pupils may open results 3, 4 and 5 to check them, but they must not search for the painting's image and paste it anywhere.

Run: 5 min — read the stimulus sheet aloud as far as Result 2 · 8 min — Part A, plan the searches · 15 min — Part B, judge the seven results (pairs may talk, but each pupil writes their own table) · 10 min — Part C, settle the four disagreements · 10 min — Part D, write the source record · 5 min — swap sheets and tick against the success criteria. Part C has right answers; they are on the worked example sheet.

Collect: this sheet. Keep the stimulus sheets for the next class.

What you are doing

Mali found a picture online and wants to use it in her sketchbook as an artist study. All she has is a cropped image and a caption that turns out to be wrong in almost every detail. You are going to plan how to trace the picture back to the people who actually own it, judge seven search results, settle where they disagree, and write the source record Mali should have put in her sketchbook in the first place.

The rule you are learning: the most useful source for an artwork is the collection that holds it, and every other page should be checked against it.

Step by step

5 min — Read the stimulus sheet. Underline every date and every place name.
8 min — Part A: plan three searches and say what each one is for.
15 min — Part B: fill in one row of the table for each of the seven results.
10 min — Part C: answer the four disagreements. Name the result numbers that prove your answer.
10 min — Part D: write the source record and work out the copyright date.
5 min — Swap with a partner and tick their sheet against the success criteria.

Part A — Plan the search

Mali has only the cropped image and the caption. Plan three searches in the order you would do them, from broad to precise. At least one should be a reverse image search (you upload the picture and the tool finds where else it appears). At least one should use a search trick: "quotation marks" to search an exact phrase, or site: to search inside one website, for example site:library.wales.

Order	Exactly what I would type or do	What I am hoping this search finds
1
2
3

Which words from Mali's caption would you leave out of your searches, and why?

Part B — Judge the seven results

First-hand means the page is written by the people who own or hold the painting. Second-hand means someone reporting on it. Trust: 1 = do not rely on it, 5 = rely on it and quote it.

Result	Who made it, and why?	First-hand or second-hand?	One thing it gets right	One thing it gets wrong or leaves out	Trust 1–5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Part C — Settle the disagreements

For each question, give the answer and the numbers of the results that prove it. Say which result is wrong and why it might have gone wrong.

C1. When was Salem painted? The caption says 1911.

C2. Is it an oil painting or a watercolour?

C3. Where can you see it? Results 3, 4, 5 and 6 seem to disagree. (Hint: how many versions are there, and which pages have a date on them?)

C4. Did Vosper hide the devil in the shawl, and was the painting “banned in Wales”?

Part D — Write the source record

This is the label Mali should write next to her artist study. Use only facts you have checked in Part C.

Artist (and dates of birth and death)
Title
Date
Medium
Held by (collection and place)
Object number
Where my image came from (web address) and the date I looked

Copyright check. In the UK, copyright in a painting lasts until the end of the calendar year 70 years after the artist dies. Vosper was born in 1866 and died in 1942. Work out the date the painting's copyright ended. Then explain whether the print shop in Result 2 can own the painting by writing “All rights reserved”.

Success criteria

I can plan a search in stages, from broad to precise, and use a reverse image search and at least one search trick.
I can tell a first-hand source (the collection that holds the work) from a second-hand one, and explain why that matters.
I can settle a disagreement between sources by naming the ones that prove my answer, and explain why the wrong one went wrong.
I can spot when two sources are describing two different versions of one artwork, and use dates on pages to decide which is up to date.
I can write a complete source record with an object number and a web address.
I can work out when copyright ends on a painting, using the 70-year rule and the end of the calendar year.

If you finish early

Result 7 found two slightly different versions of the scene. Write three questions you would ask the National Library of Wales to find out exactly how its 1909 version differs from the 1908 one.
Rewrite the social media caption in Result 1 so that it is true, still under 30 words, and still makes people want to look at the painting.
The chatbot in Result 6 sounded certain and was wrong three times. Write a two-sentence rule for yourself about when you would and would not use a chatbot answer in your sketchbook.