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