Lesson 2 Art and the City
Arles, the City of Light and Art
Certain artists are so closely ____ with particular places that it is hard to separate them.
Arles and Van Gogh ____ like that.
____ is located five hours southeast of Paris and is well known for its magical light and colorful landscape.
The most ____ resident of this town was Vincent van Gogh.
Leaving behind the gray skies of Paris, he arrived ____ Arles in 1888.
The ____ inspired an explosion of creativity.
Vincent claimed, “The whole future of art ____ to be found in the south of France.”
____ worked enthusiastically and produced nearly 200 paintings in just fifteen months.
None of Vincent’s works are left in Arles now, but ____ you can see a number of them have been recreated in street-side panels.
Let’s follow Vincent’s traces that ____ in Arles.
The Roman Arena
Arles is an ancient city ____ back to Roman times.
Many Roman buildings remain, including an arena that was built ____ 90 A.D.
The arena used to seat over 20,000 people who would go to watch various entertaining ____
Vincent ____ went to the bullfights that were held in the arena every Sunday.
He ____ liked to watch the colorful crowds.
He told a friend that he found the ____ fascinating.
They inspired the painting Arena at ____
The arena is in the top right corner of the ____ and is barely visible.
Below, there is a faint ____ of two bulls.
However, Vincent ____ lots of attention to the people and their colorful clothes.
Some of the people are chatting ____ friends, others are cheering on the bulls, and the entire painting has a powerful energy.
Café van Gogh
Vincent painted the ____ Café Terrace at Night in September 1888.
He created this work while sitting outside the Café van Gogh ____ night.
This was unusual because most painters ____ their night scenes from memory and worked during the daytime.
____ such, they used a lot of black paint.
Vincent, however, believed that night scenes contained diverse ____ vibrant colors.
Indeed, the ____ Terrace at Night has such a rich harmony of yellows, blues, and oranges that Vincent did not have to use a single drop of black paint.
Even today, there is still a café at the site ____ Vincent’s painting.
It was renovated ____ the 1990s and painted yellow to look like the café in the painting.
However, it is uncertain whether ____ color of the original café was yellow or not.
The reason ____ that Vincent painted the wall of the café yellow to show the lamp light.
Former Arles Hospital
In December 1888, Vincent suffered from a mental illness and was sent ____ the hospital in Arles.
He stayed there for five ____
During this time, ____ mental stability improved, and the doctors allowed him to paint outdoors.
Vincent took advantage of this freedom and produced several beautiful landscapes, such as The Garden ____ the Hospital in Arles.
The picture illustrates a spring garden filled with flowers and trees with ____ colors and tones.
The flowers are in full bloom, and ____ small trees are leafy.
The big trees, ____ have few leaves.
This is rather ____ given that the season is spring.
Perhaps this contrast reflects ____ painter’s complex feelings during the most difficult time of his life.
The hospital closed in the 1980s, and the building reopened as a library and exhibition space, with a café and gift ____
The garden was renovated to resemble Vincent’s painting ____ much as possible.
Arles and its provincial countryside ____ Vincent to create brighter, more exciting landscapes.
He had ____ for brighter colors and softer light in Paris.
In Arles, he found ____
Today, more than 200 years later, this beautiful city remains just ____ attractive.
The combination of Roman historic sites and Vincent’s story creates ____ unique mood that will inspire you just as the city had inspired Vincent.