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Unity characterises all Wilson's mature work. He never let little shapes obtrude upon the big masses. Sortie of his figures and his trees may be overgeneralized, but they are always necessary to the design, and related in weight to the ground and in colour to the lighting. His composition, his lighting and his power of rendering space were the best of inspirations to Turner. His eye for colour and his bold use of impasto are likely to have influenced Constable, who greatly admired him. The Rocky River Scene is very like a sketch by Constable. In fact, in grandeur of sentiment, of design and execution Wilson's landscapes make him fully worthy of the title 'The Father of British Landscape.' It is sad and strange therefore that even now because some of his best work is privately owned and because his poorest productions, like The Villa of Macenas, are over-conspicuous owing to their size, he should still continue to be deprived of the wide popularity that is his due.

(Abridged from: Ch. Johnson "English Painting from the Seventh Century to the Present Day" http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook/English_Painting_from_the_Seventh_Century_to_t he_Present_Day)

1.Transcribe if necessary the following proper names and give their Russian equivalents:

Canaletto, Zuccarelli, Monamy, Poussin, Claud Le Lorrain, Rembrandt, Watteau, Vernet, Penegoes, the town of Mold, Kilgarran Castle, The Summit of Cader Idris.

2.Match the columns:

3.Answer the questions to the text

1.How did Wilson's career begin? Why was he inspired to start landscape painting?

2.Why do you think landscapes were not popular in the 70s of the 18th century?

3.What are the peculiarities of the Dutch manner in painting landscapes? How did Wilson modify it?

4.What work of Wilson was imitated by another great British artist?

5.What pictorial effect of light achieved by the painter is especially unique?

6.Why is Wilson worthy of the title 'The Father of British Landscape'?

4.Describe the landscape “The Summit of Cader Idris” dwelling on the peculiarities of the depiction of natural phenomena and colour scheme.

Text 7.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

After Wilson, the next great name in British landscape is that of his contemporary and junior by thirteen years, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), whose landscapes are almost as unlike Wilson's as his portraits are unlike those of Reynolds. For one thing, Gainsborough, the Lowlander, painted many homely or pastoral but few grandiose or heroic subjects (1).

For another, his model in maturity was Rubens, of all great landscapepainters the most remote from Wilson in aim. But the fundamental difference was this. Wilson calculated the effect of each dab of paint that he put down; Gainsborough's light careless brush-strokes came in the right place by instinct

(2).

Before he went to Bath Gainsborough had painted many rural scenes in Suffolk, for which his only guides were the works of such minor Dutch masters as he happened to have seen. That the Dutch painters, who were Gainsborough's early models, stimulated him to a thorough study of tone-values can be seen in his beautiful Landscape with pigs. The same intimate feeling and careful drawing occurs in the backgrounds of the outdoor portraits; for instance, in the Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Child, where gleams of sunshine through the clouds upon the figures and again upon the whitewashed walls and gay roofs of tile and thatch of a distant group of cottages. In the group of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews there are equally delicate differences between the golden corn, the grey-green fields and the rosy grey of the further woods (3).

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In the Suffolk period therefore, while Gainsboroughs' portraits show Hogarth's influence, in his landscapes that of Dutch painters (4).

To Gainsborough's landscapes, as to his portraits, the move to Bath made an almost immediate difference. His Bath work shows that he was strongly influenced by the discovery of Rubens' landscapes, one at least of which he is known to have copied. Henceforward the freedom of handling increased and Gainsborough's trees were often most inaccurately drawn, though like those of Rubens they appear alive and growing and subject to wind (5).

There may have been other old masters besides whose landscapes he saw near Bath. The large distribution of lights and darks in a Romantic Landscape belonging suggests the influence of Nicholas Poussin. Gainsborough learned in Bath how to generalise; and if his landscapes have lost one kind of intimacy, they are as full of the love of nature as ever, the warmer colour giving them greater attractiveness, as the clear division between light and shade gives them greater unity (6).

Gainsborough's developments in the two main branches of painting continued side by side. The second change did not occur suddenly like the first, but only gradually after he had left Bath and had been in London for some time. Thus later Bath and earlier London landscapes are practically indistinguishable in style. Both retain the same transparent dark brown shadows that occur in the Duchess of Cumberland portrait. Both frequently include cattle pasturing or wading streams overshadowed by trees or copses on slightly rising ground. This kind of theme gave Gainsborough a good opportunity for contrasting broad simple masses of light and shade (7).

How grandly satisfying such arrangements can be is seen in the Watering Place, where, in spite of the golden gleam of the evening seen behind the group of trees on the right, the main mass of light is concentrated upon the neighbourhood. No disturbing shadows of foliage interfere with this main light; and in the same way the large dark masses of the trees are only interrupted by a few rifts or openings of distant sky such as explain the light and air beyond. Within these masses however are subtle gradations, the full beauty of which can only be seen when sunlight is shining directly upon the picture. The dark heavy foliage of the trees becomes transparent where the leaves grow thinner against the sky; the group of loungers on the shaded left bank receive much golden reflected light; on the other side the shadow on the man on the horse is almost purple by reflection; and the cows and goats in front of him are seen gradually to merge out of darkness into full sunshine without ever losing their luminosity or their varied colour (8).

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http://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/thomas-gainsborough/the-watering-place-1777.jpg

The Market Cart, though usually attributed like the Watering Place to 1775, is painted in a different and much thinner technique, with the minimum of impasto, the grain of the canvas being almost everywhere visible except in the sky. It is a joyous example of the delight in sunshine and wind that Gainsborough shared with Rubens. Examples of reflected light abound and the direct sunshine may well dazzle the girl in the cart. Gainsborough's inspired dexterity appears as much in the painting of the dog's fur and horse's mane which are blown back by the wind, as in the different shapes of the thin brushstrokes with which he suggests the contrasted characters of the willow and of the oak. Apart from some mauves and pinks in the sky the scheme is of only three colours which give consistent harmony to the whole. A tawny gold, a scarlet and a greenish blue are repeated throughout almost unmixed save on the canvas itself, the blue and red sometimes occurring, as on a tree on the right, in sudden sharp unmodified strokes (9).

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http://uploads1.wikiart.org/images/thomas-gainsborough/the-market-cart-1786.jpg

This use of separate touches of primary colours, which is almost a foretaste of the 'divisionism' of last century, occurs more emphatically in the later landscape. The Bridge of about 1777, where the man and cows who are crossing the wooded stream are picked out in spots of yellow, red and blue. In a larger variant of this subject with cliffs on the right, a wider valley, and a higher distant hill, the cooler colour and lighter key of tone shows Gainsborough in his last phase. In 1782 he visited the English lakes so that what mountainous subjects he painted probably belong to that or a later date. His mountains however, palely silhouetted against the sky, never show much knowledge of structure (10).

It is in less grandiose scenery that he is most at home. The finest qualities of his last phase can be seen in The Harvest Wagon, one of the most brilliant landscapes ever painted. Everything is alive with movement, yet is subject to pictorial balance; the excited group in the wagon naturally forms a pyramid and the eye inevitably follows the lines of the restive horses held back in the turn of the road, and so by way of the whip to the tree on the right. The lively effect is enhanced by the lightness, decision and grace of all the brush-strokes a point of dexterity in which Gainsborough alone among English painters can equal Rubens, while he has here excelled him in sensitive perception of local colour.

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The total proportion of dark is less than in the Watering Place, while the shadows are even more luminous and as colourful as the lights. The horse in sunlight is white and those in shadow are of different tints of chestnut; the distant hills melt from rose or green to blue; a purple grey occurs in the wood on the left and in one woman's garment; the other figures wear different tints of gold; while the touches of red repeated throughout the canvas all lead up to where the brightest light and brightest colour is concentrated around the scarlet, brilliant alike in sun and shadow, of the cloth that hangs from the cart (11).

http://uploads3.wikiart.org/images/thomas-gainsborough/the-harvest-wagon-1767.jpg

The dividing line between landscapes and figure compositions in Gainsborough's work cannot be made hard and fast. There are very few of his landscapes that do not contain a human being. Thus his landscapes are valueless as topographical records, but inestimable as telling us the thoughts and feelings of a truly great man. Well might Constable speak of not being able to look at them without tears and Ruskin say of him: 'Gainsborough is an immortal painter, the greatest colourist since Rubens' (12).

(Abridged from: Biography Base http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Gainsborough_Thomas.html; Ch. Johnson "English Painting from the Seventh Century to the Present Day"

http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook/English_Painting_from_the_Seventh_Century_to_t he_Present_Day)

1.Find synonyms to the following words and expressions in the text:

1.rural (P. 1)

2.extravagantly or pretentiously imposing (P. 1)

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3.completeness , perfectness (P. 2)

4.far, distant (P. 2)

5.a touch, stroke (P. 2)

6.inwardly, intuitively (P. 2)

7.less important, less famous (P. 3)

8.private and personal (P. 3)

9.a faint or brief light (P. 3)

10.instant ( P. 5)

11.make (something) more widespread or common (P. 6)

12.very similar or close to each other (P. 7)

13.to keep, save (P. 7)

14.small, narrow rivers that are possible to walk through (something filled with water) (P. 7)

15.a small group of trees (P. 7)

16.a composition (P. 8)

17.a fault, cleft (P. 8)

18.loiterers, ramblers (P. 8)

19.to blend (p. 8)

20.the texture of the canvas (P. 9)

21.to blind someone (P. 9)

22.skillfulness (P. 9)

23.of a pale purple colour (P. 9)

24.of an orange-brown or yellowish-brown colour (P. 9)

25.anticipation (P. 10)

26.to be discernible (P. 10)

27.unruly (P. 10)

28.to be intensified, increased (P. 11)

29.a deep reddish-brown colour (P. 11)

30.change or merge imperceptibly into (P. 11)

31.an item of clothing (P. 11)

32.a shade or variety of a colour (P. 11)

33.of a brilliant red colour (P. 11)

34.deathless, eternal (P. 12)

2.Insert the right preposition

1.a model ... maturity

2.the most remote ... Wilson ... aim

3.came ... the right place ... instinct

4.stimulated him ... a thorough study ... tone-values

5.the same intimate feeling and careful drawing occurs ... the backgrounds of ... the outdoor portraits

6.gleams of sunshine ... the clouds ... the figures

7.are practically indistinguishable ... style

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10.no disturbing shadows... foliage interfere ... this main light

11.the large dark masses ... the trees are only interrupted ... a few rifts or

19.apart ... some mauves and pinks ... the sky the scheme is .... only three

33.the brightest light and brightest colour is concentrated ... the scarlet

3.Comment on the parts of the text highlighted in yellow.

4.Discuss with your partner the evolution of colour in Gainsborough's landscapes comparing “The Watering Place” and “The Harvest Wagon”.

Text 8.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

The foregoing description of English landscape-painting is a necessary prelude to the study of Turner; for there was scarcely one of the painters so far mentioned from whom he did not learn. While this does not explain the arrival

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of so great a genius, it makes his greatness less inexplicable. The fact still remains that Turner owed most to his own powers of eye and hand, of thought and feeling powers which entitle him to be regarded as the greatest of English painters and as the greatest landscape-painter of the world.

Life and career

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was the son of a barber, and was born at 26 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. At thirteen he went to Coleman's School at Margate, where he must have first acquired his lifelong passion for the sea. Leslie wrote that 'Turner might have been taken for the captain of a river steamer, but a second glance would find more in his face than belongs to an ordinary mind.' He was short and stout, with a weather beaten complexion and keenly observant blue eyes. By nature he was shy and retiring; just before he died, he hid from his friends in a Chelsea lodging house under an assumed name. Yet he was a warm-hearted friend and capable, though habitually businesslike, of acts of great generosity. Except in his art, his education was narrow; he liked poetry, but his own attempts to write it were laughable and his prose unintelligible. 'In casual conversation' (to quote Leslie again), 'he could express himself happily'; but his public speeches were confused. The best of these, made at a dinner after Ruskin had been elaborately eulogizing his works, consisted of the words: 'Well; painting's a rum thing!'

Turner was working direct from nature. In 1791, when he was sixteen, he painted A View on the Avon. Here the trees are full of life and movement, with the wind blowing through their branches. He has also successfully explained how far away the river is and how far below the spectator's eye.

In 1788, three years before this, Turner had already been apprenticed to Thomas Maiton, from whom he learned a stern standard of accuracy in the drawing of buildings, which he was soon to apply to everything else that he drew, whether ships or waves, mountains, trees or clouds. He came in fact to explain the structure of all natural forms with a completeness that had not existed in art since Leonardo's drawings; and further what in no other case is combined with such thoroughness to involve everything in his pictures in light and atmosphere.

Turner's genius then is evident even in the topographical drawings which he made for his living. But such work did not satisfy his ambitions. In 1793, when he was independent of instructors, had a studio of his own and was well launched in his profession, one of his drawings was bought by Dr. Monro. This was the beginning for Turner of a widened outlook. In Monro's house, he copied works by Wilson and by Cozens, and saw the latter's Hannibal landscape, from which he said he had learned so much.

The years from 1795 to 1802 were spent by Turner in constant travel. He visited Wales, the English lakes, Scotland, and finally, in 1802, Switzerland, the last journey being prompted by his admiration for Cozens' Swiss works. He was also studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year.

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Important support for his works also came from Walter Ramsden Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, near Otley in Yorkshire, who became a close friend of the artist. Turner first visited Otley in 1797, aged 22, when commissioned to paint water colours of the area. He was so attracted to Otley and the surrounding area that he returned time and time again. The stormy backdrop of "Hannibal Crossing The Alps" is reputed to have been inspired by a storm over Otley's Chevin while Turner was staying at Farnley Hall.

Turner was also a frequent guest of George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont at Petworth House in West Sussex and painted scenes from the grounds of the house and of the Sussex countryside, including a view of the Chichester Canal that Egremont funded. Petworth House still displays a number of paintings.

As he grew older, Turner became more eccentric. He had few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for thirty years, eventually working as his studio assistant. His father's death in 1829 had a profound effect on him, and thereafter he was subject to bouts of depression. He never married, although he had two daughters by Sarah Danby, one born in 1801, the other in 1811.

He died in the house of his mistress Sophia Caroline Booth in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea on 19 December 1851. He is said to have uttered the last words "The sun is God" before expiring. [Norman Davies, "Europe: A history" p. 687] At his request he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, where he lies next to Sir Joshua Reynolds. His last exhibition at the Royal Academy was in 1850.

The architect Philip Hardwick (1792-1870) who was a friend of Turner's and also the son of the artist's tutor, Thomas Hardwick, was in charge of making his funeral arrangements and wrote to those who knew Turner to tell them at the time of his death that, "I must inform you, we have lost him."

Style and works

Especially after 1797, Turner's works ceased to be merely accurate records of fact and became impressions of a scene in which the mood that it inspired was explicit, and of which the details were rearranged, selected or discarded according to the needs of an idealised vision. In fact they differ from merely topographical drawings as much as a poem in praise of a landscape differs from the description of it in a guidebook.

The mood that most frequently inspires Turner's water colours of this period is one of awe in the presence of Nature's forces. It can be described by the epithet 'sublime.' It can be seen in the water-colour drawing of about 1800, of Norham Castle, Northumberland.

The colours, as in all Turner's work of the period, are subdued, depending upon the warm orange of the sky and the cold bluish-grey of the castle, the rest being almost monochromatic. The luminosity therefore depends chiefly upon the gradations of light and shade, enriched by the varieties of mystery and of

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