SERLS Friendship, London

Mixed age group

SERLS Friendship is a Russian school operating out of school hours with branches in various London boroughs. Children from the Bexley/Greenwich centre created this project.

The students made a journey through time to the 19th century when Renoir painted 'The Umbrellas'. They learnt about the clothes people used to wear in France at the end of the century and how that clothing was constructed. They also compared toys and games from the period with those of today.

The children then looked at Parisian architecture, in particular the construction of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. Inspired by its iron-laced construction and by investigations into artists' abstract sculptures, the students decided to recreate the figures from Renoir's painting in wire. As a finishing touch, they used tissue paper for the umbrellas and the basket.

Svetlana Quigley (Art Teacher)