Text b The Impressionist Palette and Technique

For centuries all painting had been based on three primary colours: red, blue and yellow, but science now taught the painters that though these might be primary colours in pigment, they were not primary colours in light. The new science of spectrum-analysis made impressionists familiar with the fact that white light is composed of all the colours of the rainbow, which is the spectrum of light. They learnt that the primary colours of light were green, orange-red, blue-violet, and that yellow-though a primary in paint was a secondary in light. On the other hand green, a secondary in paint is a primary in light as green pigment can be produced by mixing yellow and blue pigments. They discarded black altogether, for, modified by atmosphere and light, they say that a true black did not exist in nature, the darkest colour was indigo, dark green or a deep violet.

Further, they used the colours with as little mixing as possible. Every water-colourist knows that the more he mixes his paints, the more they lose in brilliancy. The same is true of oil paints. The impressionists refrained, therefore, as much as possible from mixing colours on their palettes. They applied them pure in minute touches to the canvas. They achieved the desired effect by juxtaposed touches of pure colours which, at a certain distance, fused in the eye of the beholder and produced the effect of the tint desired. The Impressionists produced a brilliant luminous grey by specking a sky with little points of yellow and mauve which at a distance gave the effect of a pearly grey. The effect of a brilliant brown was given by the juxtaposition of a series of minute touches of green, red and yellow.

It was an endeavour to use paints as if they were coloured light. The tendency before the Impressionists was to regard colour from the standpoint of black and white. The Impressionist asked which colour in the solar spectrum it came closest to.

Questions to the text to be answered:

1. What were the three primary colours before the Impressionists?

2. What did the new science of spectrum analysis give to the Impressionists?

3. What are the primary colours of light?

4. What is a rainbow?

5. Why did the Impressionists discard black altogether?

6. Why did the Impressionists refrain from mixing colours?

7. How do they apply colours to the canvas?

8. How could they produce a brilliant luminous grey?

9. How could they produce the effect of a brilliant brown?

Exercise 13. Various names were given to the method of painting now known as Impressionism. Some of them are: divisionism, pointillism, luminism. Choose the proper name to match the following:

It was called ……because …

1. the aim of the process is to paint the colour of light with all its brilliance and vibration.

2. by it the secondary and tertiary colours were dividend into their constituent elements, that is pure colours.

3. the colour was applied to the canvas in points instead of in sweeping brush strokes.

Exercise 14. Render into English using words and word combinations from the texts A and B:

Відомо що:

Імпресіонізм – це метод, стиль живопису, що появився в другий половині 19 століття, спочатку в Франції, а потім в інших країнах. Він взяв свою назву від назви картини Моне „The Impression. Seascape.” Імпресіонізм – це результат одночасового бачення, що передає баченe в цілому, а не окремо, частина за частиною, як це робили старі майстри. Вони уважно розглядали кожен листочок, гілочку, квіточку, а потім старанно наносили їх на полотно, як суму при додаванні. Імпресіоністи внесли багато нового в живопис. Вони першими провели детальний аналіз кольорів. Вони замітили, що кожен колір має своє доповнення, що відтіняє його і робить більш виразним. Наприклад, фіолетовий – це доповнення до зеленувато-жовтого. Вони помітили, що атмосфера і освітлення змінюють колір предмета. Покриті зеленою травою пагорби на відстані здаються не зеленими, а голубими. Це вплив атмосфери. А вершини гір, покриті снігом, коли на них падають промені вечірнього сонця, здаються не білими, а мідно-гарячими. Це вплив освітлення. Імпресіоністи намагались не змішувати фарби, вони наносили їх чистими на полотно. Чисті кольори – це кольори райдуги, сонячного спектра. Вони намагались намалювати сонячне світло. Моне навіть сказав, що головна діюча особа на картині – це світло. Щоб одержати яскраві кольори, вони наносили фарби в чистому виді поряд маленькими мазками, або навіть цяточками. Ці цяточки різних чистих фарб зливались в очах глядача і досягався бажаний ефект. До імпресіоністів належать Мане, Моне, Ван Гог, Дега, Тулуз Лотрен, Гоген, Сезан та інші. Деякі з них продовжували свій творчий пошук і відійшли від імпресіоністів. Наприклад, Пікасо, Матіс та інші.

Exercise 15. You are supposed to make a report at your lessons in History of World Culture about Impressionists. What would you say? Here is a plan to help you.

1. What is Impressionism?

2. When and where did it appear?

3. What gave its name to this method of painting?

4. What does this method imply?

5. What is the difference between this method of painting and academic method of old masters?

6. What is one of the main discoveries of Impressionists? (complementary colours).

7. What is the impressionist Palette? (primary, secondary colours, science of spectrum analysis, the colour of sun light).

8. What is the impressionist technique? (juxtapose unmixed pure colours, apply colours in minute touches, fuse, beholder).

9. What are the other names given to this method of painting? Why?

10. What are the most well-known representatives of impressionism?

11. Your favourite painter-impressionist, if any, why?

Exercise 16. Read, dramatize the dialogue. Be sure you know these words.

obscure – похмурий, неясний

unintelligible – нерозбірливий

tongue – язик

to condemn – осуджувати

to spatter – розбризкувати

S. – Do you like this painting, Mr Glyn?

G. – Very much.

S. – You don’t find it obscure and unintelligible?

G. – Not at all.

S. – Then be so good as to tell me what these innumerable black tongue-lickings in the lower part of the picture represent.

G. – Those are people walking about.

S. – Are they? Do I look like that when I walk along Piccadilly?

G. – Perhaps not / These people are younger then you.

S. – Indeed. And what is this strange object in the left foreground?

G. – That obviously is a horse and a carriage.

S. – Impossible / Never saw such an animal.

G. – It is not, of course, a coloured photograph.

S. – It isn’t, is it? I certainly condemn this. This is not a picture, it is a mere spattering of colours.

G. – Nevertheless, it is art.

Exercise 17. Look attentively at these phrases. Paraphrase the above dialogue using them.

Phrases expressing admiration (захоплення)	Excellent! Splendid! It’s great! Wonderful! It’s lovely!
Phrases expressing surprise (подив)	Really? Indeed? You don’t say so. Am I? Is it? Are they? Why?
Phrases expressing approval (похвала)	Absolutely. Exactly. That’s right. You are right. Right you are.
Phrases expressing disapproval (несхвалення)	It’s impossible. I have never seen/heard about it. It’s unheard of. It’s awful. It’s incredible.
Phrases expressing uncertainty (сумнів)	No, you certainty aren’t. I’m not quite sure of it. Well, I doubt.

Exercise 18. Compose flashes of conversation according to the model. Use guide words and phrases given in Ex. 17.

model

• Fine picture, isn’t it?

• Absolutely lovely. Who is it by?

• Oh, these sunflowers. They were painted by Van Gogh if I’m not mistaken.

• You are quite right. Is it an original?

• I strongly doubt. But it’s done well, isn’t it?

• Excellent.

Guide words:

Paul Cezanne – still-life / apples

Edgar Degas – ballet dancers

Paul Gauguin – scenes of native life

Henri Toulouse Lautrec – dancer from Moulin Rouge

Auguste Renoir – charming, beautiful woman / the portrait of Jeanne Samary

Exercise 19. Listen to the text “Mary Cassatt”. Answer the question given after the test.

Be sure you know these words:

to insist on – наполягати

to settle down – оселитись

to subordinate – підчиняти

texture – структура

goddess – богиня

to recognize – признавати

to recall – згадувати

Mary Cassatt

A tall, slender Philadelphia society girl, Mary Cassatt insisted on going to Europe to study art. Her banker father said he would rather see her dead. But in 1866, when she was 22, Mary went. After travelling throughout Europe, studying and copying old masters in Holland, France, Italy and Spain she finally settled down in Paris. She was greatly influenced by Edgar Degas. Degas taught her much. She also learned much from Manet, Monet and other Impressionists. From them she learned to subordinate form, space and texture to the pure play of light. She made a habit of painting ordinary people in beautiful poses as earlier artists painted saints and goddesses. But she was not recognized in her native country, America, during her life-time.

Mary Cassatt felt more at home in Paris. For many years she rarely left her studio, painting from eight in the morning until late at night. During World War I the light failed in her eyes. Blind, she lived on for another ten years, feeling her way with an umbrella, and smiling sadly as she recalled the great days of impressionism. She died when she was 82.

Questions:

1. What country did Mary Cassatt come from?

2. What was her father?

3. Why did she leave her native country?

4. What did she do in Europe?

5. Who were her teachers?

6. What was her habit of painting?

7. When was she recognized in America?

Exercise 20. Read and translate the text using a dictionary: