How to Critique a Piece of Artwork
How to Critique a Piece of Artwork is a free 18-page printable teacher resource for GCSE and A Level Art & Design. It helps students move from simple description to evidence-based analysis, thoughtful interpretation and balanced judgement using real public-domain artworks.
Free for classroom and educational use. Please retain the copyright and artwork credits included in each file.
What is Included?
This guided pack introduces a clear critique framework, models each stage with Vincent van Gogh’s The Bedroom, and provides an independent activity using Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884.
The resource includes:
How to Use the Artwork Critique Pack
Begin with silent looking before giving students contextual information. Work through the stages in order, returning to visible evidence whenever a claim is made. The pack can support whole-class modelling, paired discussion, independent writing, sketchbook annotation or a focused intervention.
Suitable for GCSE and A Level Art & Design
The resource supports Fine Art, Photography and Graphic Communication. GCSE students can use the vocabulary lists and sentence stems to build confidence, while A Level students can compare interpretations, integrate relevant context and develop a more independent critical voice. Select individual pages or print the complete pack.
Classroom Use and Copyright
This resource may be printed, edited and used with students within your own school, college or educational setting. It must not be sold, repackaged, uploaded to another website, shared publicly or distributed commercially. Copyright in the original teaching text, worksheets, layout and promotional graphics remains with Portfolio to A Star and Ian Bradbury. The embedded paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat are genuine public-domain historical artworks, not student submissions or exam-board exemplars, and are credited separately in the pack.