Teacher: Dear boys and girls, Good afternoon! Let’ me begin our lesson. Today at the lesson we’ll speak about art. Its beauty and role in the life of people. We’ll learn more about painting, Russian painters and their masterpieces. We’ll also visit the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Pictures, tables, cassettes, TV (video films) will help us to do our work better. First, I want you to answer my questions. What do we belong to art.

Pupil 1:  I think painting, sculpture, literature cinema and theatre belong to art.
Teacher: What well – know museums in Moscow do you know?
Pupil 2:  I know the Museums of fine Art named after A. S. Pushkin, the Kuskovo Museum and   the Tretyakov Gallery.

Teacher: You’ve mentioned the State Tretyakov Gallery. I agree that the Tretyakov Gallery is one of the famous picture galleries in Moscow and in the world.
Now you are invited to visit it and Pupil 3 will be our guide.
(he’ll tell us) Listen to him very attentively and ask questions to know everything you are interested in.

Pupil 3:  The State Tretyakov Gallery is a cultural and educational centre of Russia and a museum of Russian art.
It is housed in a two-storey building in Lavrushinsky by-street. The central part of the building was designed at the beginning of the century by the painter Vasnetsov.
The museum was founded in 1856 by Pavel Mikhalovich Tretyakov. He had been collecting pictures for 40 years and had a rich collection of Russian paintings.
In 1872 Tretyakov built a special gallery for his collection and in 1892 presented it to Moscow. There were 1000 paintings and 500 drawings in his collection then.
The gallery contains more than 56 thousand works today.
The collection reflects the history of Russian art, you can see icons of Rublev, portraits by Repin, Tropinin and Brullov, Russian landscapes by Shishkin, Savrassov and Levitan, historical canvases by Suricov and many others, as well as sculptures.
Recently the gallery has been reconstructed. A lot of visitors can admire its canvases again. The gallery also holds exhibitions of Russian masters and its Exhibition Hall which is popular both among muscovites and visitors to Moscow.

Pupil 1:  Where is the Tretyakov gallery situated?
Pupil 2:  When was the gallery founded?
Pupil 3:  Why is it named after Tretyakov?
Pupil 4:  What can you see in the gallery today?
Pupil 5:  Where does the gallery hold its exhibitions?
Pupil 6:  Have you ever been to the Tretyakov Gallery&
Pupil 7:  When did you last go to the gallery?

Teacher: Thank you for your questions, my dear friends. You have learned many useful things. Now I Suggested you to listen to the dialogue prepared at home.
The conversation is about Kustodiev’s painting “Shrovetide”

Pupil 1:  I say, Yulya, let’s talk about the painting “Shrovetide” by Kustodiev.
Pupil 2:  I am afraid I don’t remember what genre the picture belongs.
Pupil 1:  Oh! Don’t you? I can tell you.
Pupil 2:  Do, please.

Pupil 1:  With pleasure. You know Kustodiev is my favorite painter. So, this painting is a landscape. I like this work because a Russian national holiday is portrayed.
The old Moscow, the Kremlin and a lot of different Orthodox Cathedrals, beautiful churches are painted. People are merry and gay.

Pupil 2:  They certainly are. Even happy, wouldn’t you say?
Pupil 1:  Exactly so. The painter has created a good holiday mood for people to see and to be proud of old Moscow.
Pupil 2:  What do you feel looking at the picture, I wonder.
Pupil 1:  I feel joy. And you?
Pupil 2:  So, do I. This picture impressed me greatly.
Pupil 1:  I can’t but add that the painting arouses some merry holiday feelings.

Teacher: Russian painters are well-know allover the world. Let’s remember their names and works they painted.
You’ll listen to some very short texts about pictures. The task is to guess the name of the painter.

Text 1:     He is one of the best-known Russian painters. He was one of the famous “Peredvizhniki”. He painted not only historical events but portraits of common and famous people.
P. Tretyakov was fond of his masterpieces.

Text 2:     He is one of Russian great landscape painters. In his works he showed the beauty of nature. His most important canvas is “Morning in the Pine Wood”.

Text 3:     He is represented in the Tretyakov Gallery as the painter who had a very dep interest in the history of Russia and considered to be a historical artist.

Teacher:   Now I want to look at the pictures hanging on the blackboard and painters’ names written on it. Match the pictures with the names of the painters.

Answers: 1c, 2a, 3b, 4d, 5f, 6h, 7e, 8g, 9k, 10i, 11j, 12l.

Teacher: Well done. We are in Levitan’s hall near his painting “Autumn Day in Sokolniki”. First we’ll listen to the passage from Paustovsky’s story “Isaak Levitan” then we’ll write down the description of the picture.
I’d like you to begin your work by drilling some of the expression you will most probably need.
The list of the word combinations.

Autumn Day in Sokolniki.

All students get cards with the Russian text – the description of the painting “Autumn Day in Sokolniki”.

the picture belongs to the brush of …
to be executed with great skill…
one could feel the painter’s palette…
the picture conveys to me the idea of …
it’s hard to take one’s eyes away from the picture..
the landscape has caught my fancy to give food for thoughts…
the color of the landscape is…
in the foreground one can see…
in the background there are…
serve to create…

(The pupils using these expressions describe the picture. Pupils listen to “Autumn Song” by P.I.  Chaikovsky and see the reproduction of the picture).

The picture belongs to the brush of Levitan. The artist depicted a wide alley on an autumn day in Sokolniki. It must be early October. The air is damp. It is going to rain. In the foreground there is a woman in a black dress. Looking down, she is walking along the alley. Her face is thoughtful and sad. The landscape is executed with great skill. Looking at the picture we could feel Levitan’s picture. It’s difficult to take one’s eyes away from the picture. It catches our imagination. The composition of the picture, its colors, the figure of the woman serve to create an impressive, sad but beautiful painting.

Autumn is depicted as a sad season but the canvas conveys to us the idea of spring and rebirth. Being fond of Russian nature the master reproduced it in paintings known and dear to everybody.

Teacher: Our excursion about the Tretyakov Gallery is over. To sum up the material under discussion I’d like to draw a conclusion. Look at the blackboard again and read English proverb: “Life is short, art is long”.
Pupil 1:  I think real life, people, historical events nature inspire painters so much. They create wonderful works of art depicting the beauty of their land.

Pupil 2:  All painters are great. Everybody has something unique to offer to people.

Pupil 3:  We can’t do without art, because it makes our life more expressive, beautiful and enriches our own culture.

Pupil 1:  As for me I am greatly impressed and I am lucky to visit the gallery.

Pupil 4:  Art develops our artistic taste and helps to appreciate beauty, to solve the eternal problems of good and evil. It enriches our life emotionally and spiritually. It will exist in centuries. I agree that art is long life is short.

Teacher: Your homework will be connected with this kind of work. You will enlarge on the topic describing your favourite picture written by your favourite painter.

Thank you for your work.