Vocabulary to be memorized

area — пространство, площадь

basilica — базилика

blade — лезвие

blend — сливаться (о красках)

border — кайма, бордюр

borrow — заимствовать

carved — резной

carving — резьба, резные украшения

catastrophe — катастрофа

clay — глина

close [klous] — близкий, тесный

close [klouz]—заканчивать, закрывать

conventional — условный, традицион­ный

curious — любопытный, интересный

dagger — кинжал

dentil — зубчик

depict — изображать

deposits — отложения

describe — описывать

design — узор

discoverer — тот, кто обнаружил что-нибудь от discover — обнару­живать

draughtboard — шашечная доска

filler — воронка

fishscale — рыбья чешуя

flat-surfaced — с плоской поверх­ностью

frame — окаймлять, окантовывать, об­рамлять

frame-work — окантовка, бордюр, окаймление

glaze—покрывать глазурью

graceful — изящный

ground — фон

grave — могила, захоронение shaft-grave — шахтовая могила

hide — скрывать

introduce — вводить

identical — идентичный

lengthen — удлинять

life-sized — в натуральную величину

light — светлый, легкий

linear — линейный

lozenge — ромб

lustrous — блестящий, глянцевитый

monochrome — монохромный

pink — розовый

pit — шахта, яма

place — зд. относить, помещать

plaster — штукатурка, лепные укра­шения

polychromy — полихромия

precede — предшествовать

predecessor — предшественник

procession — процессия

reach — достигать

relief — рельеф

high-relief — высокий рельеф

bas-relief - барельеф

remove — удалять

rest — остальная часть, остаток

sacrificial — жертвенный

sarcophagus — саркофаг

scheme — схема, план

sculpturesque — скульптурный

shape — форма

simultaneous — одновременный

slip — облицовка, ангоб

spectator — зритель

spiral — спираль

stretch — простираться

succeed — следовать за чем-либо

suggest — наводить на мысль

survive (to) — сохраниться, дожить

touch — прикосновение

trace — след

triglyph — триглиф

varnish — лакировать

variety — разнообразие

vary — варьировать

vase — ваза

Text V

Paul Gauguin

The life of Paul Gauguin was so crammed with adventures all kinds that even a matter-of-fact account cannot decrease its? dramatic interest. He was born in Paris in 1848, the year of the second French Revolution; but when reaction took over again1 a little later, his father, a liberal journalist, had to go into exile.2 Paul Gauguin was three years old when his parents took him to Peru, the president of that country being a relative of his mother. The child's father died on the voyage,3 and his mother remained in Lima for only four years. Back in France the boy was raised in Orleans until, at seventeen, he went to sea as an apprentice in the merchant marine and sailed back, and forth across the Atlan­tic Ocean between Rio and Le Havre. After the French defeat in 1871, and the death of his mother, he gave up the sea4 and took a position5 in a broker's office in Paris.

For eleven years Gauguin followed a successful business ca­reer.6 In 1873 he married a young Danish girl, leading with her and their children a pleasant, comfortable life. Occasionally, on Sundays, he painted as an amateur, though he was ambitious enough to send a landscape to the Salon of 1876. But, unwilling to follow academic precepts, Gauguin soon began to haunt exhi­bitions7 and art galleries. His amazing instinct immediately at­tracted him to the then still scorned and ridiculed works of the Impressionists, whose canvases he not only admired but also bought. It was not long until he became acquainted with Camille Pissarro, always easy to approach and ready to help beginners. Pissarro introduced him to Cezanne and Degas and arranged for Gauguin to show his timidly Impressionist paintings in the exhibitions of their group in 1880, '81, and '82. His body and soul now consecrated to painting, Gauguin no longer lived except du­ring his hours of liberty from the office. Relying upon his modest savings and his lucky star, he suddenly decided in 1883 to aban­don the bank8 and take up painting «every day». He moved with his wife and five children to Rouen, where Pissarro was then wor­king, bus soon found living there too expensive. Madame Gauguin was able to persuade him that an easier life awaited them in Denmark with her relatives. She hoped above all9 that the in­sistence of her family would induce her husband to resume his profitable business career. But the sojourn in Copenhagen turned out to be a complete failure. Gauguin was unsuccessful both as a representative for a commercial firm and as an artist. An exhibi­tion of his work was forced to close after only five days.

Discouraged and penniless10 Gauguin left his family in Copenhagen and returned to Paris in the summer of 1885. He obtained employment as a bill-poster in Paris railway stations, but ill health forced him to stop work and spend several weeks in hospital. Yet no misfortune, no poverty, could induce him to abandon his art. Early in 1886 he moved to the small village-of Pont Aven in Brittany, where he found peace, new subjects, and credit at the inn. When he returned to Paris late that same year, he met Vincent Van Gogh who greatly admired him.

Overcome by an irresistible desire to escape, Gauguin resolved to leave for Martinique. First he landed in Panama and worked as a common laborer with the diggers of the Panama Canal, to earn his passage to the islands. He immediately fell in love with the exotic beauty of Martinique and infused his Impressionist work with some of its tropical colors. But, unable to endure the climate, he obtained passage home as a sailor and late in 1887 returned to France, sick and exhausted. Once more he went to live in Pont-Aven, where he soon met a young friend of Van Gogh's, Emile Bernard. Under his influence, he now gradually broke away from Impressionism and adopted a bolder style, so­mewhat inspired by Japanese prints, with radical simplifications of drawing, brilliant, pure, bright colors, an ornamental character of composition, and willful flatness of planes11 — a style which he called Synthetism.

At the insistence of Vincent van Gogh, and with the financial help of Vincents's brother Theo, Gauguin left Pont-Aven in the fall of 188812 to join Van Gogh in Arles. But their divergent tempera­ments and opinions soon caused the two friends to quarrel violent­ly. Van Gogh suffered a nervous breakdown,13 followed by an at-tack of insanity during which he threatened Gauguin's life. After Van Gogh had been taken in a serious condition to the public hospital in Aries, Gauguin left hurriedly for Paris, and thence again for Brittany.

Gauguin's new style attracted the attention of several young painters in Pont-Aven and he slowly gathered a small group of followers around him. Yet his modest success was not accompanied by any material benefits. The dreariness of his situation once more stirred in Gauguin the irresistible desire to seek out faraway lands, despite the failure of his trip to Martinique. At the end of 1890, he went back to Paris to prepare for a voyage to Tahiti, dreaming of life under palm trees and a tropical sun.

Living in the jungle of Tahiti, Gauguin set out to work feverishly, his imagination tremendously stimulated by his lovely and peaceful surroundings. His will to simplify forms as well as his ar­bitrary use of colors, combined with his literary aspirations, gave his work its decorative stamp. Thus the novelty of Gauguin's art consisted not only in his subjects but also in his conception of these subjects, in his efforts to reconcile the barbarous character of Maori idols with the sensitivity of a European artist.

…the first few month in Tahiti, Gaugum's enthusiasm was once more supplanted by bitter resignation; hunger and poverty again became his daily guests. He fell ill and spat alarming quantities of blood. Finally, in desperation, he begged to be taken home. The French government repatriated him in the summer of 1893. In Paris unexpected news awaited him: an uncle in Оr1еапs had left him a small legacy, and Gauguin was able to spend money liberally, if only for a short while.14 He held a comprehensive exhibition which met with little success, rented a large studio where he lived with an Indonesian girl, gave receptions, and undertook some short trips, including one to Copenhagen. He spent the summer of 1894 once more in Pont-Aven, accompanied by his young mistress. Some slighting remarks addressed to the strange couple involved him in a brawl with several sailors during which his ankle was broken.

During his sleepless nights Gauguin now again abandoned himself to his favorite dream:15 life in the tropics. In spite of his harassing experiences, of hunger and illness suffered in the South Seas, he decided to return there, this time forever. Disposing of everything he owned at public auction 16 (though he had to buy back 17 most of Ms pictures so as not to let them go for ridiculous prices), Gauguin got ready to leave in the spring of 1895.

The fate that awaited him in Tahiti was no more pleasant than the one he had met there before. He worked only between trips to the hospital, accumulated debts, was grief-stricken at the news of the death of his favorite child. Eventually in 1898 he went to hide himself in the mountains and attempted suicide, but unsuccessful­ly; even death did not want him. Meanwhile in Paris the dealer Ambroise Volland began to take some interest in Gauguin's work, exhibited his paintings and offered him a contract which guaranteed him at least the bare essentials of his frugal life. But now the painter began to quarrel with the colonial administration un­til, after several more sojourns at the hospital, he sold his belongings in 1901 and left Tahiti for the nearby island of Hiva-Hoa.

Gauguin began to think of returning to France when his health improved and he was able to paint more frequently. How­ever, he still suffered from heart trouble and from eczema of his injured foot. Whenever he could not paint, he wrote his memories as well as acid letters to various local officials, one of whom brought suit against him. In January 1903, a cyclone destroyed his hut; in March he was condemned to several weeks in prison and found himself without means to go to Tahiti for an appeal. Yet no appeal was necessary. The threat of imprisonment released him to death.18 Gauguin expired on May, 8, 1903, lonely and heartbroken, far from his country, his family, his friends. But ever since, his paintings have asserted his powerful presence through-out the civilized world.

Notes to the text

1 reaction took over again — вновь наступила реакция

2 had to go into exile — был вынужден покинуть родину

3 on the voyage — в пути

4 he gave up the sea — отказался от карьеры моряка; букв. отказался
от моря

5 took a position — поступил на работу, занял должность

6 followed a successful business career — успешно занимался коммерче­скими делами, был преуспевающим дельцом

7 to haunt exhibitions — постоянно посещать выставки

8 decided to abandon the bank — решил уйти из банка

9 above all — больше всего

10 discouraged and penniless —обескураженный (упавший духом) и без
копейки денег

a willful flatness of planes — преднамеренная плоскостность изображения

12 in the fall — осенью (амер.)

13 suffered a nervous breakdown — заболел нервным расстройством

14 if only for a short while — хотя бы на короткое время

15 abandoned himself to his favourite dream — предавался своим излюбленным мечтаниям

16 disposing of everything 'he owned at the auction — распродав все свое
имущество на аукционе

17 to buy back — выкупить

18 the threat of imprisonment released him to death — смерть избавила
его от тюремного заключения