V. Find the missing parts of the sentences:

Claude Monet was the original founder and practitioner of …………… . Some of his best known works include …………… .

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840 in Paris, France. His father was a grocery store owner and …………… . By the time he was fifteen Monet had become popular as …………… . In 1858 Monet met Eugène Boudin, a landscape painter who …………… . Boudin introduced Monet to outdoor painting, an activity that soon became his life's work.

Monet's studies were interrupted by …………… . In 1862 he entered the studio of Charles Gleyre in Paris. Claude Monet was interested in natural light, atmosphere, and color, and he tried …………… .

Monet exhibited regularly in the impressionist group shows, the first of which took place in 1874. On that occasion his painting Impression Sunrise …………… and the name stuck.

a) ………………… military service in Algeria.

b)………………… a caricaturist – a person who makes exaggerated portraits of people.

c)………………… “Impression Sunrise”, “Water Lilies”, and “Haystacks”.

d)………………… inspired a newspaper critic to call all the artists “impressionists”,

e)………………… became a great influence on the young artist.

f)………………… the French Impressionist movement in painting.

g)………………… to record them in his paintings as accurately as possible.

h)………………… his mother was a singer.

Topic 27. Visiting Art Galleries and Museums

Lesson 1

My Last Visit to the Art Gallery

One of the places where one can get spiritual food is a museum or an art gallery. Museums and art galleries are an essential part of any culture and society.

Last year I went to Moscow to visit my friend. I did a lot of sightseeing. I had a good time there. But what I found absolutely unforgettable was my visit to the Tretyakov Gallery. The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the famous and well-known picture galleries in Russia and all over the world. It is situated in a Russian-looking building in the centre of Moscow. This gallery is named after its founder Pavel Tretyakov.

During the conducted tour I learnt much about the gallery in general, about the life of Pavel Tretyakov and about the history of Russian art from the 11-th century to the present days.

Pavel Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings in 1856. He wanted these paintings to be seen by people. The first works in Tretyakov's collection were the paintings of the "Peredvyzhnyky". The collector bought paintings "Morning in a Pine Wood" by Shishkin and "Ivan Tsarevich on the Grey Wolf" by Vasnetsov.

The gallery has many halls. I visited the halls devoted to the great Russian painters of the 18-th and 19-th centuries. I could see pictures by such famous painters as Serov, Repin, Ivanov, Levitan and others. I could see the landscapes "After Rain" and "Golden Autumn". These paintings by Levitan are really very beautiful. I liked them very much. I like to see his paintings because he is one of my favourite artists. I could compare his painting "Golden Autumn" with the poem "Autumn" by Pushkin. I also saw some paintings by Repin in the Tretyakov Gallery. His paintings are connected with the history of Russia, for example, the painting "Ivan Grozny Murders His Son Ivan". There were some portraits of Lev Tolstoy and a self-portrait of Repin in this hall.

The exposition of the gallery included a rich collection of Russian icons. Among them there was the world-famous “The Trinity” painted by Andriy Rublev in the 15th century. I liked this painting very much. This work reflects the life and soul of the Russian people.

The Tretyakov Gallery has many new exhibits now. I could see works of the painters of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century there. I liked works by Gerasimov. I think that he is a very talented painter.

After visiting this Gallery I received an emotional experience. I wish I could visit it once again.

Vocabulary:

spiritual – духовний

culture – культура

society – суспільство

to visit – відвідувати

picture gallery – картинна галерея

founder – засновник

to collect – колекціонувати

collection – колекція

exhibition – виставка

to paint – малювати

painter – художник

hall – зал, хол

to devote – присвячувати

to compare – порівнювати

to connect – з’єднувати

to include – включати

landscape – пейзаж

icon – ікона

to reflect – відображати

soul – душа

to receive (to get) – отримувати

experience – досвід

to go sightseeing – оглядати визначні місця

I. Read and translate:

A thanking letter (visit to museum)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I visited your museum last Saturday with a couple of friends of mine, who do not speak English very well, and who had their small child with them in a pushchair. I would like to tell you how enjoyable our visit was because of the help given to us by your staff.

When we arrived, there was a long queue at the entrance, but a member of staff saw that we had a small child with us and took us immediately to the front of the queue and into the museum. As we went round the museum, we asked members of staff various questions about the exhibits, and they explained everything very patiently and in a way that my friends could easily understand. They are clearly experienced in this sort of situation and very well trained.

Our visit was a great success and this is mainly because of your staff. I would be grateful if you could thank them on our behalf for treating us so well and helping to give us a memorable day.

Yours faithfully,

Jack Daniels

Lesson 2

Text 1

Visiting the Louvre is a special experience, but you need to know where to start. The first thing to recognize is that it's huge and you can't hope to see everything in a day – so don't try. Get a handy map of the museum with your entrance ticket and it highlights the main attractions, such as the Mona Lisa.

You can visit the Louvre and not see the Mona Lisa, but my tip would be to see it first – though you may have to run to avoid the crowds! When you've done that, use the plan to look for the galleries that sound the most interesting to you, and spend the morning visiting them, when you have plenty of energy. Then have some lunch at one of the reasonably priced cafes, and spend the afternoon relaxing and finding surprises without looking at your map. The beauty of any museum or gallery is personal discovery.

On a practical note, there are toilets located on all floors, and several shops selling really good books, guides, postcards, and souvenirs. Photography, surprisingly, is permitted.

You can borrow an audio guide for fee, which is very useful and worth the money. You have to leave a credit card or passport or any other document. There are several stalls offering audio guides, so you need to remember which one you got it from, as you must return it to the same one to get your credit card or passport back. The Louvre is organized into 'wings' with names (for example, Denon) and the audio guides are at the entrance to each wing.

Finally, the easiest way to enter the Louvre is via the Metro entrance, rather than from the street, as the lines are shorter!

Have a wonderful visit!

Text 2

I want to tell you about my last visit to the Museum of Ukrainian Art in Kyiv. It is one of the richest museums, a treasure-house of the finest works of outstanding Ukrainian artists of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

The Kyiv State Museum of Ukrainian Art was opened in 1936. Its numerous galleries contain one of the richest collections of fine arts from the 15th century. This collection is arranged in 21 halls. I was deeply impressed by numerous works of classical painters and famous Ukrainian artists such as Shevchenko, Murashko, Vasilkovskyi and Pymonenko which are on display there. The oldest exhibit displayed in the museum is the wooden relief of 'St George with Scenes from His Life' produced in the 13th century. Visitors can see many icons of the 16th-18th centuries. In another hall we can find the largest collection of Ukrainian portrait art and folk art. To my mind, the portraits of Cossack commanders are extremely effective.

An extensive art collection of the 19th century includes the works of Shevchenko, Sternberg, Sokolov and other famous painters.

The museum has several rooms with a large number of paintings made by contemporary painters, such as Melikov, Yablonska and others.

Each year the Museum of Ukrainian Art is visited by foreign visitors and numerous delegations from many cities and villages of our country. I think people should visit museums like this, because art plays an important role in upbringing our emotions, tastes and feelings, it enriches our inner world and cultivates love for people and nature.