Painting description

24. A) Match phrases 1-5 with their opposites a-e.

1) subtle colouring	a) hot colours
2) brilliant colour scheme	b) agitated colours
3) cool colours	c) dull, oppressive, harsh
4) restful colours	d) gaudy colouring
5) soft and delicate	e) low-keyed colour scheme

b) In pairs discuss the colour scheme of paintings from the appendix.

Useful Language:

● The painting’s central focus is on the interaction of various colours. The most prominent colours are … .

● The artist mainly uses … colours.

● It is painted in clear and transparent tone, in a colour scheme where ….. predominate.

● Others colours in the painting such as … give the viewer a sense of … .

● Shades of … give the viewer an impression of … .

25. a) Listen to the art critic talking about two paintings and answer the following questions. (from Jack C. Richards Tactics for Listening Expanding. Second edition. / Jack C. Richards –Oxford , 2005. –P. 45.)

1) What is the name of each painting, and who was it painted by?

2) The painter of which picture is referred to as a “surrealist”?

b) Listen again and fill in the gaps. Write no more than three words.

Personally speaking, I’m a member of the school of thought that insists on (1) _____ before it’s possible to truly appreciate what the artist intended to convey when painting it. It is also important to bear in mind something of the background of the individual. This is never than in the works of John Singer Sargent and Rene Magritte. Magritte’s The Lovers II is a (2) _____ of the often challenging images that stem from his revelations of the mystery of the visible world. To him this world was a more than adequate source of lucid revelations, so that he didn’t need (3) ____ like other surrealists. He remains one of the art world’s most (4) ____. But those who find him obscure shouldn’t forget that he had turned his back on the fantastic and immediate (5) ____. He didn’t seek to be obscure. There are many who fail to see what it is about this particular piece that made it so (6) ____.

John Singer Sargent’s famous painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is in (7) _____ The Lovers II, in that it has a (8) ____ quality which gives those unversed in his work the impression that he was (9) ____ and lacked the philosophical depth of the Surrealists. Sargent, however, predated the Surrealists, and closer examination of his work reveals (10) ____, which helped define the surrealist school of painting.

26. Read the text and match its parts A-D with subtitles 1-4:

1) General information

2) History

3) Description

4) Style and interpretation

The slave ship by j.M.W.Turner

A The first impression that the painting creates is of an enormous deep-red sunset over a stormy sea, an indication of an approaching typhoon. Upon closer inspection one can discern a ship sailing off into the distance. The masts of the ship are red, matching the blood-red colour of the sky and the sickly copper colour of the water, which serves to blur the lines between various objects in the painting. The ship’s sails are also not unfurled, revealing that the ship is preparing for the typhoon. In the foreground can be seen a number of bodies floating in the water; their dark skin and chained hands and feet indicate that they are slaves, thrown overboard from the ship. Looking even more carefully, one can see fish and sea monsters swimming in the water, possibly preparing to eat the slaves, and sea gulls circling overhead above the chaos.

Consistent with Turner’s emphasis on colour in many of his other works, the painting’s central focus is on the interactions of various colours. Few defined brush strokes appear in the painting, and objects, colours, and figures become indistinct. Rather, objects are defined by their colours in the painting, and some objects (like the bodies of the slaves and the incoming storm) have no real border at all, being solely defined by the contrast with the pigments around them. The most prominent colours are the red of the sunset which encroaches into the water and ship as well, and the maroon of the bodies and hands of the slaves.

B J. M. W. Turner was inspired to paint The Slave Ship in 1840 after reading The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade by Thomas Clarkson. In 1781, the captain of the slave ship Zong had ordered 133 slaves to be thrown overboard so that insurance payments could be collected. This event probably inspired Turner to create his landscape and to choose to coincide its exhibition with a meeting of the British Anti-Slavery Society. Although slavery had been outlawed in the British Empire since 1833, Turner and many other abolitionists believed that slavery should be outlawed around the world. Turner thus exhibited his painting during the anti-slavery conference, intending for Prince Albert, who was speaking at the event, to see it and be moved to increase British anti-slavery efforts.

C The Slave Ship formally Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying -Typhoon coming on is a painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner, first exhibited in 1840. The size of the painting is 35 x 48 inches, done on canvas with oil paints. It can be seen now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In this classic example of a Romantic maritime painting, Turner depicts a ship, visible in the background, sailing through a tumultuous sea of churning water and leaving scattered human forms floating in its wake.

D Turner emphasizes colour rather than design. The indistinct shapes and the pervasiveness of the sunset’s blood-red colour serve to convey a focus on nature and illustrate the idea that nature is superior to man. Other colours in the painting, such as the cool blue of the ocean and the black caps of the water, bring the ocean’s hues to life and give the viewer a sense of the true emotions of the natural world. The fact that the figures in the painting are depicted as minuscule and that even the ship is shunted to the background in favour of the water and the sun further serve to decrease the emphasis on humanity and transfer it to nature.

By placing the emphasis on nature rather than on figures or objects, Turner evokes the concept of the “sublime”, coined by Edmund Burke. The idea of the sublime is of the utter powerlessness and terror of humanity in the face of nature; by dramatizing the strength of the waves and sun, Turner uses The Slave Ship to perfectly encapsulate Burke’s definition of the term. Turner’s decision to paint the work with a series of quick, frenzied brush strokes rather than carefully defined lines adds to the intensity of the painting, serving to make the viewer feel even more overwhelmed. Though the painting’s size is relatively small compared to many Romantic landscape paintings, it still captivates the viewer in arguably a more powerful way.

27. Listen to the art critic describing the painting Alone by Dawn Parkinson and fill in the gaps. Write no more than three words. (from www.rnib.org.uk › ... › Arts and crafts › Painting)

Entitled Alone, the painting (1) _____ a seagull hovering over a bleak ocean, in the lee of a white chalk cliff. The cliff dominates (2) ____ side of the painting. High up, a narrow line of brownish green (3) ____ the cliff top. The same colour stains the chalk face. Shades of (4) ______ give the chalk a furrowed and eroded appearance. At the base of the cliff is a short stretch of pebbly beach, lapped by the sea. The water is created by (5) _____ brush strokes. Grey, blue, black and yellow combine in an (6) ______. Flecks of white suggest the surf. Beyond the headland, a brooding sky includes (7) _____ used for the cliff face – grey clouds, tinged with yellow and white, almost obliterate a tiny patch of blue. (8) ______ of the painting, the seagull itself hangs effortlessly in the air – its black-tipped wings spread wide, its red legs tucked back under its tail. The gull has a keen eye and a sharp-looking yellow beak. Another gull flies (9) _____. More birds, reduced to specks of (10) _____, hover above the cliff.