British architecture

a chimney-sweep [`t5mn5 swi*p] трубочист

to depict [d5p5kt] изображать

superstition [sju*p1s`ti*&n] предрассудок

intolerance [5n`t4l1r1ns] нетерпимость

a clergyman [kl1*d#5`m0n] священнослужитель

engraver [5n`$re5v1] гравер

to recruit [r5`kru*t] вербовать

negotiations [n5$ou&5`e5&nz] торг, переговоры

dissipated [d5s5`pe5ted] беспутный

gouty [`$aut5] подагрический

Earl [1*l] граф (английский)

count [kaunt] граф

countess [`kaunt5s] графиня

humbug [`h9mb1$] обманщик

shrimp [&r5mp] креветка 

II. Read the names of the pictures.

“The Harlot's Progress” - “Карьера продажной женщины”.

“The Rake's Progress” - “Карьера мота”.

“The Election Entertainment” - “Выборы”.

“The Marriage a la Mode” - “Модный брак”. 

III. Listen to the lecture and look at the slides.

Portrait painting is one of the glories of English art. Landscape is another. In both directions English art rose to supreme heights. Great lovers, spectators, investigators and critics consider that in very spirit of the British pictures a sincerity springs from the depths of the national temperament and an inheritance of the great William Hogarth. He was created by moral spirit existing between utilitarian moralism and poetic and poetic fantasy. Nobody but Hogarth was so much marked by unique force and singularity. 

1. Self-portrait by Hogarth (1745).   

Not until William Hogarth do we find a painter truly English. He is not only the portrait painter but moralist and satirist, the creator of a national character. He was one of the greatest English artists and a man of remarkably individual character and thought. He observed both high life and low with a keen and critical eye, accompanied by dramatic composition, technical quality which add beauty to his pictures containing an element of satire and caricature.  

Hogarth was a printer's son, uneducated but a curious observer of men and manners. His first works date from 1730. He was a great painter but he became famous as an engraver of social and political caricature. He criticised his contemporaries for their superstition, fanaticism, intolerance and exploitation of lower classes. 

The first successful series “The Harlot's Progress,” was followed by the tremendous set of “The Rake's Progress”. The election satire was occasioned by the Oxfordshire election of 1754. The series “The Election Entertainment” consists of 6 pictures. 

The first one “The Pre-Election Banquet” shows two Whig candidates for Parliament giving a banquet for their supporters in the local inn while the rival Tory party parades outside the window. On this occasion there are no social distinctions between gentleman and voter, and alcohol gives the general sense of equality. The first candidate, Sir Taxem, talking to a fat woman, a shoemaker, a knight, a young girl make a group of lively equality and unity. In the next group a chimney-sweep near the second candidate demonstrate friendship and loyalty. A clergyman acts as the division between these groups. 

The following pictures of the set depict the recruiting voters of various kinds and wherever possible. 

“The Recruiting of voters”

(engraving - 2)

“The Voting”. 

Then comes the triumph of those elected to the Parliament.

“The Triumph of the members elected to the Parliament”. 

The famous set of pictures called “Marriage a la mode” (“The Modern Marriage”) contains the most important and highly appreciated of Hogarth's comedies. Every picture is marked by great care, wit and skill.

 “The Singing of Marriage Contract” describes the negotiations between the daughter of a rich citizen Alderman and young Lord Viscount Squanderfield, the dissipated son of a gouty old Earl. Pride and pomposity appear in every thing surrounding the Earl. He sits in gold lace and velvet. His coronet is everywhere: on his footstool, on the dogs, on his chair, and the great baldachin behind him, under which he sits confronting the old Alderman from the City. He has taken his sword for the occasion and wears his Alderman's chain and has brought a bag full of money for the arrangement of the marriage. The young people sit together united but apart. They are young and pretty but the painter with a curious watchfulness gives them likeness to their parents as if foreseeing their future. And their future goes like that. 

“Soon After the Wedding Party”. Problems, quarrels, scandals, misunderstanding, even indifference and dislike between husband and wife are obvious. Then comes the attempt to save the marriage in  

“The visit to the Humbug”. The countess's private life, her interests and surroundings in   

“The countess's Drawing-Room” shows the countess listening to the foreign singers, wasting money on amusements and entertainments. The dismal end is known. The Lord is killed at the duel. 

“The Duel and Death of the Count”. 

The countess dies. 

“The Death of the Countess”. 

The quality of Hogarth as an artist is seen in his portrait. His famous “The Shrimp Girl” stands alone in his work, taking its place among the masterpieces of the world in its harmony of form and content, its freshness and vitality. The swift brush working to seize the passing moment gives on impressionist's picture. 

What man was he who executed these pictures? - so various and admirable. You see him before you “Self-portrait” and you can fancy what he was - an honest London citizen, with bright blue clever shining eyes, giving you an idea of that keen and brave look with which William Hogarth regarded the world.

IV. Exchange your opinions on the pictures you have seen, and the lecture you have listened to. 

V. Are you going to visit London? This text will help you to get information about some famous art galleries in London.   

The National Gallery

Trafalgar square.

Underground: Charring Cross or Leicester Square. 

The National Gallery fills the whole of the north side of Trafalgar Square. It is situated in a building of classical design. Two bronze statues stand on the lawns either side of the Gallery entrance: one of James II dressed like a Roman, by Grinding Gibbons (1686) and one of George Washington, presented by the American people in 1921. 

The National Gallery itself was begun in 1824 when the government of the day decided that London needed a national art collection to complete with famous European galleries. It was based on the collection of 38 painting, including works by Raphael, Rembrandt and Van Dyck and belonging to John Julius Anderstein.  It was bought by the government for £57.000 

Nowadays the National Gallery has the collection of Western European painting, comprising more than 2.000 pictures dating from the late 13^th to the early 20^th century, in other words, from Giotto to Picasso. The pictures belong to the public and access to them is free, as it has been since the Gallery was founded in 1824. 

It is housed in an extensive range of buildings designed by William Wilkings in 1838. 

National Gallery Top Ten 

Ten pictures in the National Gallery that should not be missed:

1. The Wilton Diptych.
2. “The Battle of San Romano” by Paolo Uccello.
3. “The Baptism of Christ” by Piero della Francesca.
4. “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist” by Leonardo da Vinci.
5. “Bacchus and Ariadne” by Titian.
6. “Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife” by Jan van Eyck.
7. Self-portrait (1669) by Rembrandt.
8. “The Haywain” by John Constable.
9. “Rain, Steam and Speed” by J.M.W. Turner.
10. “Une Baignade, Ashieres” by George Seurat. 

The National Portrait Gallery 

2 St. Martin Place.

Underground: Charring Cross.  

Tucked away at the back of the National gallery the National Portrait Gallery is virtual “who is who” of the famous names in British history, science and the arts. The collection consists of some 9.000 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs collected and displayed chronologically. It begins with the Tudors and their predecessors. Each room has been given a particular historical theme, and furnishings, engravings, and other documentary material set the portraits in context. 

Although monarchs, politicians and soldiers dominate the early part of the collection, later rooms have a fair share of writers, artists and scientists. 

National Portrait Top Ten.

1. Richard II.
2. Henry VIII by Hans Holbein.
3. Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts.
4. Sir Francis Drake by Nicholas Hillard.
5. Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.
6. Emma, Lady Hamilton, Nelson's mistress by George Romney.
7. Lord Byron by Thomas Phillips.
8. Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra.
9. The Brontё Sisters by their brother Branwell.
10. Virginia Woolf by Duncan Grant.

The Tate Gallery 

Mill bank.

Underground: Pimlico. 

The Tate Gallery is two national collections in one: British art from 16^th century to around 1900, and international modern art from Impressionists until now. Opened in 1897, the gallery was named after the sugar millionaire Sir Henry Tate who gave his Victorian paintings and paid for the building. Subsequent additions have culminated in James Stirling's Clore Gallery for the Turner Collection, opened in 1987 and containing 300 paintings, 20.000 drawings, 300 sketchbooks, left by Turner. 

The Tate is not a maze. It is easy to seek out particular paintings. Moreover many canvases depict familiar London includes painting by W. Hogarth, T. Gainsborough, J. Reynolds, Stubbs, J. Constable, W. Blake's illustrations for Milton's “Paradise Lost”, H. Hunt, Rossetti, etc. 

The Modern Collection includes Monet, Pissaro, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, etc. 

Temporary exhibitions are often placed at the back of the building. There is also a shop, a cafe and a restaurant painted with Rex Whistler's fantasy mural. 

Tate Gallery Top Ten.

1. “Le Baiser” (The Kiss) by Rodin.
2. “Sir Benjamin Truman” by Thomas Gainsborough.
3. “Flatford Mill” by John Constable.
4. “Snowstorm. Hannibal Crossing the Alps” by J.M.W. Turner.
5. “Haymakers” by George Stubbs.
6. “The Annunciation” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
7. “The Sick Child” by Edward Munch.
8. “Double Nude Portrait” by Stanley Spencer.
9. “The Snail” by Henri Matisse.
10. “A Bigger Splash” by David Hockney.

Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) 

Cromwell Road.

Underground: South Kensington. 

This is the national museum of fine and applied art and covers all countries, periods and styles. It is a vast box of delights, with exhibits ranging from great works of art to items whose function is simply to entertain and amuse. 

The V&A is the finest museum of the decorative arts in the world. Its collections, housed in magnificent Victorian buildings span 4.000 years and include sculpture, furniture, fashion and textiles, paintings, silver, glass, ceramics, jewellery, books, prints and photographs from Britain and all over the world. 

In 1857 the museum was moved to its present site, having been founded at Marlborough House after the Great Exhibition as the Museum of Manufacturers. New exhibits and gifts pushed the museum far beyond its original theme. A reorganisation was required. A competition for the design of additional buildings held in 1891 and won by the architect Sir Aston Webb brought to the foundation of the buildings in Cromwell Road and Exhibition Road. The foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria in 1899 and the museum, re-opened in 1909 as the V&A. 

Among the highlights of this collection are the objects from the late Roman period of the Romanesque and Gothic periods, the seven great Cartoons by Raphael in the Cartoon Court, English Tudor and Elizabethan works of art and European decorative and applied art of 1600 - 1900, copies of fine sculptures of the medieval and Renaissance periods of Italian art in the Italian cast Court; works of Japanese, Chinese and Islamic art; the Dress collection spanning four centuries of fashion; musical instruments among which there is one of the oldest harpsichords of 1521; the jewellery collection, containing 6.000 pieces of jewellery from Ancient Egypt to the present day; one of the greatest collections of works by John Constable, presented to the museum by his eldest daughter in 1898; the collection of portrait miniatures. 

The Wallace Collection 

Hertford House, Manchester Square.

Underground: Bond Street. 

The Wallace Collection displays superbworks of art in probably the most sumptuous interiors of any museum in London. The Collection was presented to the nation by the widow of Sir Richard Wallace in 1897 and is displayed on the ground and first floors of Hertford House, the family's main London residence. 

There you can see collections of French 18^th century painting, furniture and porcelain together with Old Masters paintings by Titian, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Hals, Rubens, Velazquez, Gainsborough, Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard; pictures by French and English artists of the 19^th century: Delacroix, Bonington.   

The spectacular collection of 18^th-century French furniture contains a number of pieces made for Louis XV and for Queen Marie-Antoinette. 

The museum owes a notable collection of Oriental arms and armour, Renaissance glass, majolica, French and Italian bronzes and Limoges enamels and the finest collection of sevres in the world.    

The British Museum 

Great Russell Street.

Underground: Holborn, Tottenham Court Road. 

This splendid museum, as its Grecian-style facade declares, is a temple to the arts and achievements of the world civilisations. The British Museum, consisting of the national museum of archaeology and ethnography and the national library, is the richest of its kind in the world. The museum was founded in 1753 by an act of Parliament, which set up a body of Trustees. Its

Nucleus was formed by the price less collections of Sir Robert Cotton, whose manuscripts had been acquired at the end of the 17^th century. The present building was built between 1823 and 1852. In 1857 the famous domed Reading Room was built. 

It is impossible to list here more than a tiny fraction of the wealth of objects that the museum contains. 

The superb Elgin Marbles, named after the seventh Earl of Elgin, the owner of the collection, are housed in the Duveen Gallery. The Elgin Marbles are sculptures from the Greek Parthenon in Athens.