4. Develop the situations checking your knowledge of the context:

   1. How had it started? Ah, yes — he had got rich one day, that was it, and he had bought lots of wine.

   2. His concentration, as soon as he began to paint, was so great that it appeared somehow to supersede his drunkenness

   3. No, the boy could not possibly be saying that because if anyone knew about the tattoo it was he — Drioli.

   4. On a sudden impulse, Drioli turned, pushed open the door of the gallery and went in.

   5. There was a sudden absolute silence in the room, each person arrested in what he was doing, standing motionless in a kind of shocked, uneasy bewilderment.

5. A) Comment on the following quotations from the story:

1. “The trouble is,” the boy said, scowling, «that in themselves they are not nourishing. I cannot eat them.”

2. “Slowly, methodically, they set about getting themselves drunk. The process was routine, but all the same there was a certain ceremony to be observed, and a gravity to be maintained, and a great number of things to be said…”

3. “The dealer lowered the hand from his nose and looked Drioli up and down, slowly, like a farmer appraising an old horse.”

4. That — and the fact that there is no hotel in Cannes called Bristol — causes one to wonder a little, and to pray for the old man's health, and to hope fervently that wherever he may be at this moment, there is a plump attractive girl to manicure the nails of his fingers, and a maid to bring him his breakfast in bed in the mornings.

b) Comment on the following quotations about Art:

1. A great artist is always before his time or behind it. (George Edward Moore)

2. Art for art's sake is a philosophy of the well-fed. (Frank Lloyd Wright)

3. The auction room, as anyone knows, is an excellent medium for sustaining fictional price levels, because the public imagines that auction prices are necessarily real prices. (Robert Hughes)

4. It's very hard as an artist to admit you have a desire to be famous. To be an artist is not about fame; it's about art, which is this intangible thing that has got to have lots of integrity, whereas being famous doesn't really take any integrity. But I think you have to admit that you want to be famous, otherwise you can't be an artist. Art and fame together are like a desire to live forever. (Damien Hirst)

5. If you were in a burning house and there was a cat and a Rembrandt, what would you save? The cat...you would save the cat, because the cat is alive. The art is dead. It's just paint on a canvas, ink on a page. To live for art is to deny life. It's just to destroy life. (Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider)

6. Speak your mind on:

a) “little Kalmuck” as if you were Drioli’s wife;

b) the scene in the gallery as if you were one of the visitors;

c) Drioli as if you were the owner of the gallery.

7. Make up a dialogue between Drioli and the “owner” of the Bristol Hotel at dinner discussing the conditions of the deal. Consolidating the Material

1. Do this quiz to test how well you remember the details of the story:

1. What was Drioli’s attitude to picture galleries:

a) he distrusted them b) he liked them c) he hated them

d) he was indifferent

2. When did Drioli and Soutine first met

a) at the beginning of WW I

b) at the beginning of WW II

c) during the first world war

d) in 1946

3. Where did Drioli and Soutine met

a) in a street b) in a picture gallery c) in Drioli’s studio d) in a cafe

4. Why did Drioli approach Soutine?

a) Because Soutine looked sad and miserable

b) because Soutine looked like a Russian

c) because he liked his paintings

d) because he was looking for a lodger

5. Where was Soutine from?

a) Paris b) Minsk c) Ceret d) Smilovichi

6. Why did Drioli like the boy?

a) they were from the same city

b) the boy was really talented

c) the boy looked like a Kalmuck

d) Drioli hoped the boy would become famous one day

7. What did Drioli want to celebrate

a) moving to Paris b) getting a new job c) earning a lot of money

d) selling one of Soutine’s pictures

8. How many bottles of wine did they drink on the evening of the celebration

a) 3 b) 6 c) 9 d) 12

9. Whose idea was it to paint a nude study of Josie on Drioli’s back?

a) Josie b) Drioli c) Soutine d) none of the above

10. Why did Drioli and Josie move to Le Havre

a) they had to flee from the war

b) there was more work here

c) they wanted to be close to Soutine

d) they had always dreamt of living there

11. Which does not refer to Soutine

a) an ugly little Kalmuck with a bitter sullen face

b) a man with broad face, high cheekbones and a coarse nose

c) a small, skinned almost hairless body

d) a man with small white hands and delicate fingers

12. Which description refers to the owner of the gallery

a) a plum short man with a flabby face

b) a tall man with a long flexible neck

c) a small man with a thick sullen mouth and ears which stood out

sharply from the head

d) a man with strong white teeth with a flash of gold among them

13. Why did a man from the crowd warn Drioli against selling the picture to the gallery owner

a) he wanted to buy the picture himself

b) he knew the gallery owner was trying to fool Drioli

c) he was concerned for Drioli’s health

d) he did not believe that the picture was original

14. The “owner” of the Hotel Bristol may be best described as?

a) a suave man looking like a snake

b) a short plump man with hands like fat white paws

c) a deadly-serious man with small dark eyes

d) a man with a flabby face with the cheeks like that of a spaniel

15. Who is Drioli compared to at the beginning of the story

a) a snake b) a horse c) a hedgehog d) a dog

2. Choose and prepare the passage for artistic reading and translate it into Russian:

1. That year— 1946 —winter was a long time going. … Just imagine that!

2. “Drioli remained awake …………in a mass of dark-green curling strokes”.

3. Write an essay on one of the following topics:

1. Art for art’s sake vs art for money’s sake

2. How much is a human life truly worth?

3. Art fairs are about money not art.