From the history of british paiting

British painting reached its heyday in the 18th and early 19th century. Beginning with Hogarth, a school of painting appeared that could be identified as characteristically British. The one hundred years between 1750-1850 witnessed the development of the three art forms: portraiture, landscape and genre that became the hallmarks of British painting.

However, up to the third quarter of the 18th century portraiture was practically the only form of painting in Britain, as the Englishman’s standard of living had become very high and those who had achieved success wished they could be remembered for posterity.

This demand for portraits was most successfully met by a gifted painter – Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), who insisted that English artists should develop the Grand Style of painting.

When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, Reynolds became its President. He tried to combine portraiture with historical painting. Reynolds also taught that everything in the picture should look natural.

One more world-known English artist of the 18th century Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) introduced another type of painting into English art – landscape. His dreamlike landscapes heralded the great English school of landscape painting. Gainsborough was passionately fond of music and he filled his house with all kinds of musical instruments, which he could play rather well. He considered them to be the most beautiful works of human skill.

One of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting was J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851). He is commonly known as “the painter of light”. Turner was interested in optical effects produced by light under varying conditions.

(From “British Painting” by

Hereward Lester Cooke)

The greatest landscapist John Constable (1776-1837) is one of the creators of landscape painting in the style of the 19th century, where atmospheric conditions serve as the subject matter of painting in a setting familiar to the artist. He insisted that art should be based on observation of nature on the one hand and feeling on the other. In 1816 Constable wrote: “Painting is a science which should be considered as a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but the experiments”.

Words & Expressions:

heyday – расцвет

portraiture – портретная живопись

a hallmark – отличительный признак

posterity – потомство

dreamlike – сказочный, фантастический

to herald – возвещать

observation - наблюдение

watercolour – акварель

subject matter – содержание картины

a setting – окружающая обстановка

Questions:

1. What is your favourite genre of painting?

2. Pictures of what artist do you like best: old or modern?

3. What picture has impressed you greatly?

4. What do you know about the artist?

5. When was it created?

6. What is the mood of the picture?

7. What is your initial reaction to it?