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 are ____ that.
Arles is located five hours southeast of Paris and is well ____ for its magical light and colorful landscape.
The ____ famous resident of this town was Vincent van Gogh.
Leaving behind the gray skies of Paris, he ____ in Arles in 1888.
The town inspired an explosion of ____.
Vincent claimed, “The whole future of art is to be found in the ____ of France.”
He worked enthusiastically and produced nearly 200 paintings in just ____ months.
None of Vincent’s works are left in Arles now, but today you can see a number of them have been recreated in ____ panels.
____ follow Vincent’s traces that remain in Arles.
The Roman Arena
Arles is an ____ city dating back to Roman times.
Many Roman buildings remain, including an ____ that was built in 90 A.D.
The arena used to seat over 20,000 people who ____ 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 colorful ____.
He told a friend that he found the crowds ____.
They ____ the painting Arena at Arles.
The arena is in the top right corner of the ____ and is barely visible.
Below, there is a ____ image of two bulls.
However, ____ paid lots of attention to the people and their colorful clothes.
Some of the people are chatting with friends, others are cheering on the bulls, and the ____ painting has a powerful energy.
Café van Gogh
Vincent painted the world-famous ____é Terrace at Night in September 1888.
He created this work while sitting outside the Café van ____ at night.
This was unusual because most painters ____ their night scenes from memory 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 have to use a ____ drop of black paint.
Even today, there is ____ a café at the site of Vincent’s painting.
It was renovated in the 1990s and painted yellow to look ____ the café in the painting.
However, it is uncertain ____ the color of the original café was yellow or not.
The reason is that Vincent painted the ____ of the café yellow to show the lamp light.
Former Arles Hospital
In ____ 1888, Vincent suffered from a mental illness and was sent to the hospital in Arles.
He stayed there for ____ months.
____ this time, his mental stability improved, and the doctors allowed him to paint outdoors.
Vincent took advantage of this freedom and produced several ____ landscapes, such as The Garden of the Hospital in Arles.
The ____ illustrates a spring garden filled with flowers and trees with different colors and tones.
The flowers are in full bloom, and the small trees are ____.
The big trees, however, ____ few leaves.
This is ____ odd given that the season is spring.
Perhaps this contrast reflects the painter’s complex feelings ____ the most difficult time of his life.
The hospital ____ in the 1980s, and the building reopened as a library and exhibition space, with a café and gift shops.
The garden was renovated to resemble Vincent’s painting as ____ as possible.
____ and its provincial countryside inspired Vincent to create brighter, more exciting landscapes.
He had searched for brighter colors and ____ light in Paris.
In Arles, he found them. Today, more ____ 200 years later, this beautiful city remains just as attractive.
The combination of Roman historic sites and Vincent’s story ____ a unique mood that will inspire you just as the city had inspired Vincent.