Западноевропейское искусство от Хогарта до Сальвадора Дали

4. Why is The Night Cafe characterised as a disturbing picture? What happened in late December of 1889? What was Van Gogh allowed to do in the hospital?

5. What does Van Gogh's Self-Portrait reveal? What colours dominate in this work of art? What mood does the picture communicate?

6. What does The Starry Night represent? What were Van Gogh's innovations?

III. i. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases:

to identify art with emotion; the colouristic discoveries of Impressionism; to free the palette; space construction; to work out a new, original sense of pattern in contour; emotional instability; Renaissance perspective; an expressive device; brushstrokes vibrate throughout the picture; to endow the painting with; cosmic embrace; tragic circumstances; to win a spiritual victory; artistic vision and expression; a style unprecedented in European art; transformation of Impressionist technique; against the blue.

ii. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:

одержать духовную победу над; модифицирование техники импрессионистов; колористические открытия импрессионистов; быть очарованным; мазки пульсируют в картине: видение художника; трагические обстоятельства; объятие космоса; одержать духовную победу; оригинальный стиль; на голубом фоне; построение пространства; для достижения большей выразительности; разработать новый оригинальный контур; перспектива Ренессанса.

iii. Make up sentences of your own with the given phrases.

iv. Arrange the following in the pairs of synonyms:

a) to vibrate; expressive; device; to endow; technique; spiritual; victory;

b) ethereal; to bestow; meaningful; triumph; invention; to wave; method.

IV. Here are descriptions of some of Van Gogh's works of art. Match them up to the titles given below.

1. In this painting the perspective is so strongly exaggerated that it seems to catapult the observer into the end wall.

2. Exploding masses of gold fire expand against the blue.

3. Renaissance perspective of fields and farms is revived in this painting.

4. In a mood of renewed confidence, the artist has endowed the painting with his own physical colouring.

a. The Starry Night

b. The Night Cafu

c. Self-Portrait

d. A View of La Craw

V. Translate the text into English.

Винцент Ван Гог – «великий голландец» – неразрывно связан с французской живописной школой. Художника, воплотившего душевную смятенность современного человека, называют постимпрессионистом. В своих произведениях Ван Гог выразил глубокий трагизм, с которым он воспринимал жизнь. Любой портрет, пейзаж или натюрморт у Ван Гога исполнен скрытой драматической силы. Ощущение беспокойства выражено в резком звучании красок.

Творчество Ван Гога охватывает десятилетие, причем самыми важными являются последние пять лет. Это были годы нечеловеческого труда, в результате которого Ван Гог создал произведения, оставившие неизгладимый след в мире искусства.

VI. Summarize the text.

VII. Topics for discussion.

1. Van Gogh's style and colour.

2. Van Gogh's theme.

3. Van Gogh's artistic heritage.

Unit XVII Matisse (1869-1954)

When the twentieth century opened, Henry Matisse, already past thirty, was a competent painter in a modified Impressionist style. He was not interested in the innovations of the Post-Impressionists. Soon after the turn of the century Matisse began experimenting with figures so simplified that their masses could be stated in bold areas of pigment. Then he turned to the divided touches of bright colour introduced by the Neo-impressionists. In 1905 came the Fauve explosion. Matisse burst upon the art world with astonishing series of paintings in which masses of brilliant colour were applied in broad areas and full intensity. His Green Stripe, of 1905, exhibited in the celebrated group of Fauve pictures in the Salon d'Automne, excited horror because this blazing bouquet of colours was applied not only to the background but also to the face, dominated by the green stripe through the centre of the forehead and down the nose. Matisse intensified the differentiation of hues already analysed by the Impressionists in order to produce a strong emotional effect. Not even Gauguin had dreamed of such distortions.