3.4. Impressions of light

1. a water-shed

2. hypocrisy

3. with aplomb

4. a fallen woman

5. to be not on

6. puny

7. pathos

8. vulnerable

9. an easel

10. a snapshot

11. to take smth in

1. BrE infml: used for saying that something cannot be allowed or that it is impossible;

2. a photograph taken very quickly;

3. in a confident and skilful way, especially when you have to deal with difficult problems or a difficult situation;

4. small, thin, and weak;

5. an event or time when important changes happen in history or in your life (= turning point);

6. understand and remember smth (that you hear, read or see);

7. a wooden frame that you put a painting on while you paint it;

8. pretending to have certain beliefs or opinions that one does not really have;

9. easy to harm or hurt;

10. old-fashioned: a woman who has had a sexual relationship with someone she is not married to;

11. the quality that a person, situation, film, or play has that makes you feel pity and sadness.

Edouard Manet. Olympia. 1863.

• Whom do you see in the painting?

• What does the woman feel or think, judging by her face expression, the gaze of eyes and the whole situation?

• What do you feel when looking at the painting?

Claude Monet. The Water Lilies (Nympheas). 1908.

• What is depicted in the picture?

• What do you feel like doing when you look at it?

• What piece of music would be in harmony with this painting?

1. The rise of the Impressionist Movement. Olympia by Edouard Manet.

1. Why do so many people love the Impressionists?

2. When did the Impressionism emerge as a genre?

3. Where does it originate from?

4. What was Edouard Manet like?

5. Why did Olympia scandalize Paris and cause hysterical cries?

6. What did the artist show in the picture?

7. How different was the painting from what the audience got used to?

8. How is pathos revealed in the painting?

To be a water-shed, an art revolution, to start accidentally, to cause offence, to have a raw power, to seem shocking in an overcivilized age, to scandalize, hysterical cries, a (puny) prostitute, hypocrisy was exploded, to look out with great aplomb, to look with a measuring glance at, not to be on, pathos, to be self-assured, to be vulnerable

2. The Impressionists.

1. Did Manet have any lasting influence?

2. The public knew them as…..

3. What gave the art movement its name?

4. What was the important feature of the new art movement?

To become the centre of, to catch fire from, portable easels, ready-mixed tubes of paint, to abandon one's studio for the open air, a snapshot approach, to be all dashes and inspiration, spontaneous but unpolished, to take the ball and run with it, to begin a long and lucrative love affair with.

C. Claude Monet. “He was only an eye, but what an eye!”, said Cezanne.

1. What were the favourite views for Monet to paint? Why?

2. “Monet was only an eye, but what an eye!”, said Cezanne. Comment on the quotation.

3. What kind of feeling does the series of water lilies awaken in the viewers? Why do you think such feelings arise?

4. What would you feel if you could see the original of “Water lilies”?

A revolutionary, Giverny, to plan the garden, to capture every flickering change of light and every fleeting moment, to feel disoriented, to take smth in, to look at/in a painting, a beloved pond, to build big sheds, to reflect, the foliage, the water lilies, to be set free, to be liberated, to be set at peace.