Art · Unit 9

What Art Shows

Portraits, landscapes, still life and abstract art

Genre - portrait, landscape, still life - was once a strict hierarchy determining an artist's standing, and the ranking has since almost exactly inverted.

The unit covers portraits, landscapes, still life, narrative scenes, and abstract art, which declines to show anything recognisable at all.

This unit breaks down into 22 short steps and 129 questions, starting at difficulty 2 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 22
Questions: 129
Difficulty: 2-3

What this unit covers

Portraits
Landscapes
Still Life
Abstract Art
Story and Scene

Where this fits

Follows Kinds of Art.

Where people slip

Abstract does not mean unskilled or arbitrary. Most abstract painters trained representationally first, and the choices in a good abstract work are as deliberate as in any portrait.

How the unit is structured

What Art Shows runs as 22 short steps that unlock in order. 16 are practice rounds and 6 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 2 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 22 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 129 in the unit altogether.

Abstract Art

Choose all that applyLevel 2
1. Which of these are true about abstract art? Pick all that apply.
- It can use bold shapes and colourscorrect
- It does not need to copy real lifecorrect
- It can show no real object at allcorrect
- It must always show a real animal
Abstract art is free from copying real life and can show no real object at all.
Fact or fibLevel 2
2. Jackson Pollock made abstract art by dripping and splashing paint onto the canvas.
Answer: True
Jackson Pollock is famous for his drip-painting style of abstract art.
Fill the blankLevel 2
3. Art that shows no recognisable objects, only shapes and colours, is called ____ art.
- abstractcorrect
- still
- portrait
- landscape
Abstract art leaves out real objects and focuses on shapes and colours.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
4. What is abstract art?
- Art that uses shapes, colours and lines instead of showing real objects clearly
- A careful painting of a person's face
- A realistic view of a landscape
- A photograph of a fruit bowl
Abstract art does not try to show things realistically; it uses shapes, colours and lines.
Picture questionLevel 2
5. 🔺 A picture made only of shapes and colours like this, with no real objects, is which kind of art?
- Abstractcorrect
- Portrait
- Landscape
- Still life
Shapes and colours with no real subject make this abstract art.
Odd one outLevel 3
6. Which of these paintings is NOT abstract?
- Van Gogh's Sunflowerscorrect
- Mondrian's grid painting
- Malevich's Black Square
- Pollock's drip painting
Sunflowers shows recognizable flowers, so it is figurative; the others are abstract.

Landscapes

Fact or fibLevel 2
7. A landscape painting must always include a large person as its main subject.
Answer: False
Landscapes focus on scenery; any people are usually small and not the main subject.
Fill the blankLevel 2
8. A landscape that mainly shows a city and its buildings is called a ____.
- cityscapecorrect
- seascape
- portrait
- still life
A cityscape is a landscape whose subject is a city.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
9. What is the main subject of a landscape artwork?
- Natural outdoor scenery like fields, mountains and skies
- A single person's face
- A group of objects on a table
- Random shapes with no subject
A landscape shows the outdoors - land, water, sky and natural scenery.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
10. Build a sentence about a landscape sub-genre.
Answer: A cityscape shows a town or city
A cityscape is a landscape that shows a town or city instead of open countryside.
Guess the numberLevel 3
11. In which year did Van Gogh paint the landscape The Starry Night?
Answer: 1889 AD
Van Gogh painted The Starry Night in 1889 while staying in southern France.
Match the pairsLevel 3
12. Match each landscape to the artist who made it.
Answer: The Hay Wain = John Constable; The Great Wave off Kanagawa = Hokusai; Wanderer above the Sea of Fog = Caspar David Friedrich; Water Lilies = Claude Monet
Each of these outdoor scenes was created by a different landscape master.

Portraits

Fill the blankLevel 2
13. A portrait that shows a person from head to toe is called a ____-length portrait.
- fullcorrect
- half
- self
- quick
A full-length portrait shows the whole body, from head to toe.
Guess the numberLevel 2
14. A double portrait shows how many people?
Answer: 2 people
A double portrait shows two people together in one artwork.
Match the pairsLevel 2
15. Match each famous portrait to the artist who painted it.
Answer: Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear = Vincent van Gogh; The Blue Boy = Thomas Gainsborough; Whistler's Mother = James McNeill Whistler; The Woman in Gold = Gustav Klimt
Each of these well-known portraits was painted by a different artist.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
16. What does a portrait mainly show?
- A person or people, especially the face
- A view of the open countryside
- A bowl of fruit and flowers
- Only shapes and colours
A portrait is an artwork of a person, usually focused on the face and expression.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
17. Which of these famous works are portraits? Pick all that apply.
- Mona Lisacorrect
- Girl with a Pearl Earringcorrect
- Whistler's Mothercorrect
- The Starry Night
The first three each focus on a person, while The Starry Night is a landscape.
Fact or fibLevel 3
18. Grant Wood's American Gothic, showing a farmer and a woman in front of a house, is a type of portrait.
Answer: True
It carefully shows two specific people, so it counts as a double portrait.

Still Life

Choose all that applyLevel 2
19. Which of these are common still life subjects? Pick all that apply.
- Flowers in a vasecorrect
- A jug and a bowlcorrect
- A plate of bread and cheesecorrect
- A running dog
Still lifes show arranged, non-moving objects, not moving animals.
Fill the blankLevel 2
20. The name 'still life' reminds us that the objects stay ____.
- stillcorrect
- alive
- warm
- bright
A still life gets its name because the objects sit perfectly still.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
21. What is a still life artwork?
- A picture of arranged objects that do not move, such as fruit or flowers
- A picture of a person's face
- A view of the open countryside
- A pattern of coloured squares
A still life shows an arrangement of non-moving, everyday objects.
Fact or fibLevel 3
22. Dutch Golden Age artists of the 1600s were famous for detailed still lifes of flowers and food.
Answer: True
Dutch painters like Willem Kalf became known for lavish flower and food still lifes.
Guess the numberLevel 3
23. Still life grew into a major independent genre during the Dutch Golden Age. In which century did this happen? Enter the century as a number.
Answer: 17 century
Still life flourished as its own genre in the 17th century, especially in the Dutch Republic.
Match the pairsLevel 3
24. Match each still-life sub-type to what it shows.
Answer: Vanitas = Symbols of death and time; Flower piece = Cut flowers in a vase; Breakfast piece = Food set on a table; Game still life = Hunted birds or animals
Each still-life sub-type has its own focus, from symbols of death to cut flowers, food or hunted game.

Story and Scene

Build the sentenceLevel 2
25. Build a sentence about a type of narrative art.
Answer: A comic tells a story in pictures
A comic strip is narrative art that tells a story through a sequence of pictures.
Fact or fibLevel 2
26. A painting of a busy market with people buying and selling is an example of scene or narrative art.
Answer: True
A market scene captures an event with people, making it narrative or scene art.
Fill the blankLevel 2
27. Art that tells a story or shows an event is called ____ art.
- narrativecorrect
- abstract
- still
- landscape
Narrative art shows a story or scene, often with people doing something.
Guess the numberLevel 2
28. A triptych is an artwork made of how many joined panels?
Answer: 3 panels
A triptych has three panels and often tells a story across them.
Match the pairsLevel 2
29. Match each famous narrative artwork to the scene it shows.
Answer: Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper = Jesus and his disciples at a meal; Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware = Soldiers crossing an icy river; The Bayeux Tapestry = The Norman conquest of England; Picasso's Guernica = The suffering caused by war
Each of these narrative works is famous for the story or event it pictures.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
30. Which of these paintings tell a story or show an event? Pick all that apply.
- Picasso's Guernicacorrect
- Delacroix's Liberty Leading the Peoplecorrect
- Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delawarecorrect
- Van Gogh's Sunflowers
The first three each depict an event, while Sunflowers is a still life.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 14 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sort into groups
Spell it
True or false
Type the answer

Practise What Art Shows

129 questions across 22 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about What Art Shows

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

How Portrait Artists Use ProportionPortrait artists use proportion to organise the relationships between facial features and the head. Careful observation matters more than memorising one perfect formula because real faces vary.August 8, 2026 · 5 min read

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