English painting (the 17^th-19^th centuries)

A picture is a poem without words. (Horace 65-8BC)

All art is but imitation of nature. (Seneca 4BC-65AD)

Art is long, life is short. (Proverb)

I. Warming – up

Answer the questions:

1. Are you a great art lover?

2. Do you often visit art galleries?

3. What do you feel when you see a masterpiece?

4. Do you have the ability to see and enjoy the beauty of nature (masterpieces of art, the beauty of poetry, dance, music)?

5. What is the main aim of art?

6. What role does art play in your life?

Complete the chart. Translate the words.

To paint	painter
humour
colour
To sit
portrait

What do the following artists paint?

A portraitist a watercolour master

A landscape painter an animalist

A marine painter a painter of battle-pieces

II. Reading

Pre-reading task

Where can you see the paintings and pictures of great artists?

What galleries and museums of fine arts do you know in Kyiv, Kherson?

Have you visited them?

What museums in London do you know?

Would you like to visit them?

While – reading task

Divide into two groups and read the texts using the vocabulary at the end and find the information which is new for you.

Art Galleries in London

It is in London naturally that the lover of paintings has the best opportunity of visiting galleries.

The idea of the Tate Gallery took shape in 1890. In that year Henry Tate’s gift of sixty-five paintings and two sculptures, almost all of them the work of Victorian contemporaries, was offered to the nation, but the gallery has still to be built to house them. It was built on the north bank of the Thames at the expense of Sir Henry Tate. When opened seven years later, the Tate Gallery consisted of eight rooms, and was intended as a collection of contemporary British painting only; it was, moreover, a mere annex to the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square.

The Tate Gallery has become the national collection of British painting of all periods, and in addition to this the national collection of modern foreign paintings, and the national collection of modern sculpture, both British and foreign.

The National Gallery, in Trafalgar Square, is open free to public. It was only started in 1824. Now it has a splendid collection of oil paintings by artists of all the important British and European schools of art, nearly every great painter being represented. It includes, for example, 19 Rembrandt’s paintings. The gallery covers more than two thousand pictures.

Vocabulary:

almost – майже

annex – прибудова

consist of – складатися

contemporary – сучасник

gift –обдарування, подарунок

Henry Tate – Генрі Тейт, англійський цукровий магнат та філантроп, заснував у Лондоні галерею Тейт

intend – призначати

mere – лише, тільки

moreover – крім того

sculpture –скульптура

take shape – приймати форму

the Tate Gallery – галерея Тейт

Victorian – вікторіанський, епохи королеви Вікторії

Post-reading tasks

1. Match the words and their definitions.

1. gallery	a) excellent, grand, admirable
2. sculpture	b) relating to other countries, not native
3. contemporary	c) to join or add to a great thing
4. annex	d) a building, where works of art are shown
5. foreign	e) a person born or living, at the same time as another
6. splendid	f) favorable moment or occasion
7. opportunity	g) the art of shaping figures out of wood, clay, stone, metal