Открытый урок по программе элективного курса "Britain: The Cultural Heritage". Тема урока: "Painting: J. Constable, W. Turner". 10-й класс

Goals:

• to develop speaking skills;
• to develop comprehension listening skills (for specific information);
• to practice reading for gist;
• to raise students’ awareness of British painters;
• to broaden students’ horizons;
• to increase students’ attention and concentration span;
• to develop logical thinking;
• to stimulate interest, imagination and creativity.

Materials:

• reproductions of pictures, t
• he photo of the National Gallery,
• cards with words,
• cards with exercises for listening,
• cards with the texts,
• cards with a table.

PROCEDURE

I. Warming up

T. Good afternoon, boys and girls. Good afternoon, dear guests. I’m glad to see you today and I invite you to speak about British painting. The topic of our lesson is Painting: J.Constable, W. Turner.
The aims of our lesson are to develop speaking skills, to train listening skills, to broaden your outlooks (through getting new information about British painters).

The plan of the lesson

Stage 1. Warming up 2. Listening 3. Reading 4. Speaking 5. Summarizing

Classroom management whole class, individual whole class, pair work group work group work

T. And now let’s start. I’ve prepared some questions for you.

1. Please, read and interpret the quotation below. What do you think of it? Give your opinions.

“Art is the most intensive mode of individualism that the world has known” (Oscar Wilde)

Glossary

Intensive – сильный;
Mode – способ;
Individualism – индивидуализм, стремление к выражению своей личности, индивидуальность.

2. What associations do you have when you hear the word “art”?

(The teacher puts the cards with the words named by the students on the blackboard: painting, sculpture, music, poetry, drama and dance)

3. What great things have been created in the field of art?

(The teacher puts the cards with the words named by the students on the blackboard: pictures, canvases, paintings, portraits, sculptures, statues, frescoes, mosaics).

4. What prominent British painters have you heard about?

Match the names and the genres of their painting:

William Hogarth Sir Jorshua Reynolds Stanley Spencer Thomas Gainsborough

portraits landscapes and occasional portraits dramatic compositions lyric portraits

5. Do you know the names of the grеatest English landscape and seascape painters? Yes, you are right. Today we are going to talk about two of them: John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner.

II. Listening

a) T. Listen to the text about J. Constable and decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F)

1. J. Constable was born and spent his childhood in the village in the South-East of England.
2. He often drew in the father’s mill in his spare time.
3. He went to Paris to become a professional artist.
4. His first work was named “Seascape”.
5. He often painted the mill, may be he remembered his past childhood and places where he had spent a lot of time.
6. He used clear green colour of all kinds of tints for the first time.
7. In one of his letters he said “Remember, nature is your first teacher. Study it”.

b) T. Listen to the second text about W. Turner and answer the questions briefly.

1. What did his father run?
2. Why did Turner-father put on the walls his son’s pictures?
3. What did Turner exhibit for the first time?
4. What technique did he study?

T. All right. Well done.

III. Reading

T. Work in groups. Using the glossary read the texts about J. Constable and W. Turner. Complete the table, using the texts.

John Constable
(1776–1837)

John Constable, the greatest of English landscape painters, came from Suffolk, and it was from the Suffolk landscape that he drew his inspiration. Constable’s affection for nature was great and his mastery to show the loved English scene reached its marvelous peak.
He always attempted to depict the transient effects of nature: light, clouds and rain. Every movement of nature gave him pleasure: its moods, cloud shadows, gleams of light, “light-dews-breezes-bloom-and-freshness; not one of which has yet been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world”, said Constable himself.
Constable was an acute observer of nature and had a romantic passion for light. For him light was the means by which a tree or cloud could take on some particular significance in the ordinary scale of things. He painted exactly what he saw in the clearest and freshest tones; his capacity for rendering the freshness of atmosphere and the incidence of light was unique.
Constable’s method of painting was nearest to that of Impressionism, broken touches of colour animating the canvas with sparkling movement. His most famous canvas “Hay Wain” was painted in 1821, more than fifty years before the Impressionists and was to influence the later French landscape painters. Its pure and brilliant colour was a revelation and made a tremendous impression.
Constable’s treatment of skies is especially notable. No one has painted cloud effects so truthfully and depicted them with so much skill. The artist was sure that a sky should be “the key-note, the standard of scale and chief organ of sentiment in a landscape”. A constant student of cloud forms, he used them to each of these purposes.
All Constable’s works show picturesque variety of detail, a triumph of keen observation, truth of atmospheric colour, and directness of handling. “The Valley Farm”, “Weymouth Bay”, “Brighton Beach with Colliers”, “The Leaping Horse and Handleigh Castle” are among his best known paintings.

Glossary

J. Constable

1) affection – любовь, привязанность;
2) mastery – мастерство;
3) reach – достигать;
4) attempt – пробовать, пытаться;
5) depict – рисовать, изображать;
6) transient – мимолетный;
7) gleam – слабый свет, отблеск;
8) light-dews-breezes-broom-and-freshness – светлый, свежий, дующий, поднимающий пыль, свежесть;
9) acute – проницательный;
10) mean – средство;
11) scale – шелуха, весы;
12) capacity – способность;
13) rendering – изображение;
14) incidence – сфера действия, охват;
15) touches – прикосновения;
16) revelation – откровение, открытие;
17) treatment – обращение;
18) keen – проницательный.

Joseph Mallord William Turner
(1775–1851)

Joseph Mallord William Turner was a genius in seascape painting. His marine canvases reveal the grand beauty of the sea, its dynamic force and movement, on the one hand, and calm infinities of space, on the other, “Calais Pier” is one of Turner’s grandest creations. This sea piece, painted after Turner’s first visit to France in 1802–1803, was startling in its original power and the observation and skill which could render all the weight and movement of the sea. The painting which portrays the conflict of wind and tide created a majestic effect.
The colouring is masterful. A somber harmony holds together all the varying and shifting sources of light. Those who look at the picture can smell the spray and hear the din of the water and the shout of the deafening wind.
Turner’s love of the sea was deep. The sea absorbed him; his eyes were open to its beauty. Turner loved to depict the sea, and especially the sea as it affected ships. It is well seen on his famous canvas “The artist was a true Romantic in depicting the sea”
The ship was to him a living creature, courageous and loyal, resourceful, yet pathetically in need of help. Turner sympathized with ships. “The Fighting Temeraire” tugged to her Last Berth to be broken up, 1838.
“The Temeraire” was launched in 1798 and fought bravely at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, when she acquired the popular name given in Turner’s title. In 1838 the ship was towed up the Thames to the ship-breaking yard. Turner is said to have been a witness to the scene and to have made quick sketches on the spot, but the finished painting is not intended as a detailed record of the event. Turner used the combination of a spectacular sunset with the imminent end of the old ship to evoke feelings of nostalgia and loss.
The highly atmospheric use of colour and the concern with generalized effects rather than with specific detail make the ship seem almost a part of the natural world. By contrast, the dark sharply outlined silhouette of the tugboat’s funnel draws attention to the arrival of modern technology, a change with which Turner was much preoccupied. Here steam replaces sail.

Glossary

W. Turner

1) reveal – открывать, показывать;
2) sombre – темный, мрачный;
3) absorb – впитывать;
4) launched – нанесен удар;
5) tugged– тащил с усилием;
6) tow – тащить;
7) intend – намереваться;
8) render – воздавать, платить;
9) infinities – бесконечность, безграничность;
10) startling – потрясающий;
11) masterful – мастерский;
12) shifting – меняющийся;
13) affected – пораженные;
14) acquire – приобретать;
15) witness – очевидец;
16) intended – намеренный;
17) imminent – близкий, грозящий, нависший (об опасности);
18) evoke – вызывать (воспоминание, восхищение);
19) loss – потеря, утрата;
20) concern – забота, беспокойство;
21) tugboat – буксир;
22) funnel – дымовая труба.

IV. Speaking

T. Immagine you are a guide, retell our guests about the prominent English artists J.Constable and W. Turner. What their pictures are distinguished by?

V. Summarizing

Tapescript (Ex. 1)

William Turner
(1775–1851)

W. Turner was born in London in 1775. His father ran barber’s shop.In those times barber’s shops were the traditional places where people met and talked. There were a lot of artists, poets. Turner-father put on the walls his son’s pictures to sell them.
In 1789 Turner was admitted to the art school belonged to the Royal Academy. At fifteen the artist exhibited his aquarelles for the first time. He studied the modern aquarelle technique. In 1801 he painted a picture “Danish ships under wind”.
In 1806–1812 Turner created the serie of scatches where he depicted the banks of the river Thames. His famous pictures are “Landscape on the Thames”1806, “Ship-wreck” 1805,”The snowstorm”, “Rain, steam and speed” 1844, “Slavery ship”1840.

John Constable
(1776–1837)

John Constable was born and spent his childhood in the village East-Berghold, which is situated in the picturesque Dadham’s valley in the south-east of England.
All days he spent on the father’s mill which was situated on the river Stoor, and he drew in his spare time.
In 1795 he tried to become a professional artist, he left for London, where he worked in engraver’s workshop, but he didn’t make any progress.
Four years later the fortune smiled him and he entered the art school. In 1802 his first work named “Landscape” was exhibited. The artist created the whole serie of views of the river Stoor, sometimes he painted the mill. May be he remembered his past childhood, the places where he had spent a lot of time: “Mill’s streem”, “A dam and a mill in Dadham”.
Constable presents as a brave and independent master. He refused details and effective lighting. He used clear green colour of all kinds of tints for the first time.
He said in one of his letters: “Remember, nature is your first teacher. Learn it.”
His famous pictures are “The white horse”, “A wagon for hay”, “Stockbye Neiland”, “The Valley Farm”.