Западноевропейское искусство от Хогарта до Сальвадора Дали

Constable never left England and made dutiful sketching tours through regions of acknowledged scenic beauty. His superb The Hay Wain, of 1821, sums up his ideals and his achievements. Composed as if accidentally – though on the basis of many preliminary outdoor studies – the picture, painted in the studio, shows Constable's beloved Stour with its trees, a mill, and distant fields. In his orchestra of natural colour the solo instrument and conductor at once is the sky. The clouds sweep by, full of light and colour, and their shadows and the sunlight spot the field with green and gold. As the stream ripples, it mirrors now the trees, now the sky. The trees are made up of many shades of green and patches of light reflect from their foliage. These white highlights were called «Constable's snow». The Hay Wain was triumphantly exhibited at the Salon of 1824, where Constable's broken colour and free brushwork set in motion a new current in French landscape art, which later culminated in the Impressionist movement.

In 1829 Constable became member of the Royal Academy.

In later life, after the death of his wife, Constable entered a period of depression in which his passionate communion with nature reached a pitch of semi-mystical intensity. One of his late pictures is Stroke-by-Nayland, of 1836-37, a large canvas in which the distant church tower, the wagon, the plough, the horses, and the boy looking over the gate are instruments on which light plays. The symphonic breadth, of the picture, and its crushing chords of colour painted in a rapid technique, bring to the finished painting the immediacy of the colour sketch. Such pictures are equalled in earlier art only by certain landscape backgrounds in Titian or by the mythical reveries of the late Rembrandt.

Make sure you know how to pronounce the following words:

Constable; Turner; Ruisdael Stour; Suffolk; chords; triumphantly; varnish; palette; plough; wain; flexible; culminated; plank

Notes

The Hay Wain – «Телега для сена»

Suffolk – Суффолк (графство)

Stour – р. Ст(а)ур

Tasks

I. Read the text. Make sure you understand it. Mark the following statements true or false.

1. Constable was the greatest English portraitist.

2. In the first half of the eighteenth century nature was beginning to be swallowed up by the expanding cities of the Industrial Revolution.

3. Discoloured varnish darkened the Old Masters.

4. Constable often visited Italy, Belgium, Holland and Spain.

5. The Hay Wain was highly praised at the Salon of 1834.

6. In 1829 Constable became member of the Royal Academy.

II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?

1. What was the mainstream of English painting in the first half of the nineteenth century? What was the attitude of Constable and Turner to nature?

2. What did Constable honour? What did he love and admire?

3. What did Constable start to record as early as 1802? Why? What do Constable's studies show? What tours did Constable make?

4. What does The Hay Wain sum up? What does this picture show? What is the major element of the picture? How has Constable depicted the clouds, the stream and the trees? How were the white highlights called? What did Constable set in motion?

5. Was Constable happy in later life? Why?

6. What was one of Constable's late pictures? What is represented in this work of art? What brings to the finished painting the immediacy of the colour sketch?

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

the poetic landscape; the brown tonality; oil sketches made outdoors; a surrender to the forces of nature; self-identification with sunlight and wind; to make sketching tours; regions of scenic beauty; preliminary outdoor studies; patches of light; free brushwork; to set in motion; a flexible steel palette knife; a finished painting; a colour sketch.

ii. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:

законченная картина; цветной набросок; гибкий стальной шпатель; подчиниться силам природы; пятна света; эскизы маслом, написанные на пленэре; подвижные мазки; богатство цвета; олицетворение с солнечным светом и ветром; живописные места; романтический пейзаж; коричневый тон; ездить по стране и писать этюды.

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

iv. Arrange the following in the pairs of synonyms:

a) triumphant; dapple; preliminary; highlight; hue; ripple;

b) mark; preparatory; victorious; tone; accent; wave.

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

1. The painting shows the Stour with its trees, a mill, and distant fields.

2. The distant church tower, the wagon, the horses, and the boy looking over the gate are instruments on which light plays.

a. Stroke-by-Nayland

b. The Hay Wain

V. Translate the text into English.