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FAMOUS MEN OF ARTS.
Exercise 1.Look through the following short text, choose one person that is of special interest to you and tell the group about him.
1. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was the most outstanding portraitist of the second half of the 18th century. He was born in Devoshire in 1723. He received a good education from his father, a clergyman and master of the free grammar school. At seventeen Reynolds went to London to study painting, where he soon became a fashionable portrait-painter. In 1768 Reynolds became the first president of the Royal Academy founded at that time.
Reynolds completed a whole gallery of portraits of his famous contemporaries. He painted his models in heroic style showing them as the best people of the nation. His portraits are not free of certain idealization of characters.
Reynolds' devotion to portraiture made him one of the founders of the English school of portrait painting at that time. Some of his mythological works include real personages.
2.John Constable was the first English landscape painter to ask no lessons from the Dutch. He was born on the river Stour. The beauty of the surrounding meadows, its woods and rivers became the subject of his painting. It was his desire to give a true and full impression of nature. Constable’s landscapes are generally calm, pleasant outdoor scenes, which are full of sunlight. But the representation of nature Constable painted in a new and different way. The essence of each was that there was absolutely no idealization of the scene before him. “Hay wain” was exhibited in 1824 in Paris and had immediate and lasting effect on French art. His pure brilliant colour was a discovery to French painting. Among his other best pictures there are: “Deham Vale”, “Flaford Mill”, “White Horse”, “The Country Lane”.
3. I.I.Repin is one of the best-known Russian painters. He was one of the famous peredvizhniki. Repin liked drawing from his childhood, so his parents sent him to the Art school. In 1864 Repin entered the Academy of Arts in St.Petersburg. There he met Kramskoy, a great master and a public figure who influenced Repin greatly.
Repin’s first large canvas was “Volga boatmen”. It reflects the hard life of the Russian people. One can see poor men who are tired out by their inhuman labour as they pool a barge up the river. “Ivan Grozny and his son Ivan” is Repin’s second historical painting. Zsar Ivan is shown holding the body of this elder son – Prince Ivan whom he has just killed. The Zsar’s eyes in a pale face reflect his soul and the horror of what he has done.
Repin is famous for painting of portraits. The portrait of Musorgsky is a masterpiece of portrait painting
4.Charles Dickens was the representative of critical realism in the XIX century in English literature. His childhood was hard. At the age of 10 he went to work to the factory. The boy worked from early morning till late at night. Dickens described this period in the novel “David Copperfield”.
In 1836 he published his first book “Sketches by Boz”, a collection of short stories from London life. Then followed “Pickwick Papers” which made the author famous. His next novels were “Oliver Twist”, “Nicolas Nickleby”. In 1842 Dickens visited America and wrote “American Notes”, where he gave a realistic picture of that society.
During the following years Dickens published “Dombey and Son”, “Black House” and others. His books are translated into many languages and are in great demand.
5.Jack London is an American writer. He was born in 1876 in San-Francisco. From his early childhood he earned his living by selling newspapers. After work he ran to school. Jack London liked reading. He was fond of books about adventures and travelers. He went to the port and watched the sailors and their work. He wanted to become a sailor and when he was 17 he started to Japan. When he came back home he wrote some sea stories. He became a writer and wrote about 500 books: short stories and novels. One of the most famous is “White Fang”.
6. George Gordon Byron was born in 1788 into an old aristocratic family. He liked history and read much about Rome, Greece and Turkey. The boy was lame but he liked sports and trained every day.
At 17 he entered Cambridge University and his literary career began. When he was a student he publishes his first collection of poems “Hours of Idleness”. In a year he published his first satire “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers”. He traveled much and visited Portugal, Spain, Greece and Turkey. Byron described his travels in a long poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”.
In 1817 Byron went to Italy where he was involved into the struggle for the national independence of Italy. There he wrote his best satiric poems “Don Juan” and “Chain”.
Then he went to Greece and there he died in 1824.
7.Michael Lermontov was born in Moscow in a noble family. In 1830 he entered Moscow University, but very soon he had to leave it. Then he entered St. Petersburg school of Cavalry Cadets. He finished it and was commissioned in the Hussar regiment of the Emperial Guard.
In 1837 the poet was exiled to the Caucasus for his poem on Pushkin’s death. During his second exile he was provoked into a personal quarrel with an old schoolfellow which led to the duel. On July 15, 1841 the poet was killed. He was not even twenty seven years old.
Lermontov began writing when he was very young. One of his first writing to be published in 1835 was his tale verse “Hadji Abrek”. Whether Lermontov chose to write poetry, prose or drama, the stamp of his genius was always found on it.
Lermontov’s poems “The Demon”, “Mtsyri” and the “Lay of the Merchant Kalashnikov” his innumerable lyrics, his novel “A Hero of Our Time” and his play “Masquerade” are masterpieces of Russian literature. Lermontov tremendously influenced in his writing by the ideas of the Decembrists. Lermontov’s poems are the protestation of faith of an independent and free man.
SPEECH EXERCISES
Exercise 1.
1. What theatrical (ballet) performances would you advise a foreign colleague to see in Moscow? 2. What is your favourite drama theatre? 3. Who is your favourite Russian (British) playwright? 4. What would you rather see: a drama or an opera? 5. Who is your favourite actor (actress, ballet-dancer, singer)?
Exercise 2.What role can museums and art galleries play in the upbringing of children? Can any child become a good person without arts' influence? What do you think about it?
WRITTEN TASKS
1. You’ve got a letter from your pen friend Mary who writes:
“…In your previous letter you told me that you had joined your school Literature Club. I wonder what you do at your club meetings. Can I help you in any way?”
Write a letter to Mary.
In your letter
- tell her about your Literature Club
- ask 3 questions about books popular with her classmates.
2. Comment on the following statement.
a)When photography was invented some people predicted that photographs would soon replace painted portraits. However, portraits have been painted for many years after the invention of photography.
What can you say for and against a portrait made by an artist?
b) When cinema was invented some people predicted that theatre would not last very long but it still exists, attracts large audience and is not likely to disappear.
Whatcan you say for and against theatre?