Museum Label Guide

Create your own museum label and form your own interpretation of Thomas Cole's Landscape (Landscape with Tree Trunks). Look back at the painting and your written responses to create your own.

Listen to the audio below for instructions.

RISD Audio Museum Label (1.1 MB)

Photograph of RISD Musem's Pendelton House, showing American art inside a 18th-century home.

RISD Museum's Pendleton House displaying American art and design

Here are some examples of works of art and their labels at the RISD Museum.

Label Example #1:

Three woven objects of different shapes rest on a wooden pallet.

Courtney M. Leonard, BREACH: Logbook21 NEBULOUS, ACCOUNT STUDY #1

Label for Leonard's work in the RISD Museum

Oil on canvas painting of a lush green forest with running water and an explorer in the foreground.

Martin Johnson Heade, Brazilian Forest

Label Example #2:

The lure of science and exotic climates diverted Heade from New England to South America in the 1860s. Sponsored by Emperor Dom Pedro II, he made annotated studies of the flora and fauna he encountered while traveling in Brazil. “From Forest Studies in South America—Tree Fern,” inscribed on the back of this painting, identifies the enormous fronds in the lower right corner. Tiny figures suggest the vast scale and density of the jungle environment.

Heade completed Brazilian Forest in a London studio, then sold it to Governor Henry Lippitt of Rhode Island after his return.

- Maureen C. O'Brien, Curator of Painting and Sculpture

Label Example #3:

Label for Heade's work in the RISD Museum

Museum Label Guide

Here are some examples of works of art and their labels at the RISD Museum.

For additional examples, browse risdmuseum.org/collection.