Lesson 2 Art and the City
Arles, the City of Light and Art
Certain ____ are so closely linked with particular places that it is hard to separate them.
Arles and Van Gogh are ____ that.
Arles is located five hours southeast of ____ and is well known for its magical light and colorful landscape.
The most famous resident of this town was Vincent ____ Gogh.
Leaving behind the gray ____ of Paris, he arrived in Arles in 1888.
The town inspired an explosion of ____.
Vincent ____, “The whole future of art is to be found in the south of France.”
He worked enthusiastically and produced nearly 200 ____ in just fifteen months.
____ of Vincent’s 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 Vincent’s traces that remain in ____.
The Roman Arena
Arles is an ancient city dating back to Roman ____.
Many ____ buildings remain, including an arena that was built in 90 A.D.
The arena used to seat over 20,000 people who ____ go to watch various entertaining events.
Vincent sometimes went to the bullfights that were ____ in the arena every Sunday.
He particularly ____ to watch the colorful crowds.
He ____ a friend that he found the crowds fascinating.
They inspired the painting ____ at Arles.
The arena is in the top right corner of the painting and is ____ visible.
Below, ____ is a faint image of two bulls.
However, Vincent paid ____ of attention to the people and their colorful clothes.
Some of the ____ are chatting with friends, others are cheering on the bulls, and the entire 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 ____ outside the Café van Gogh at night.
This was unusual because ____ painters did their night scenes from memory and worked during the daytime.
As such, they ____ a lot of black paint.
Vincent, however, believed that night scenes contained diverse and vibrant ____.
Indeed, the Café Terrace at Night has such a rich harmony of yellows, blues, and oranges that Vincent ____ not have to use a single drop of black paint.
____ today, there is still a café at the site of Vincent’s painting.
It was renovated in the 1990s and painted yellow to ____ like the café in the painting.
However, it is uncertain whether the color of the original café was ____ or not.
The reason is that Vincent painted the wall of the café yellow to ____ the lamp light.
Former Arles Hospital
In December 1888, Vincent suffered from a mental illness and was ____ to the hospital in Arles.
He ____ there for five months.
During this time, his mental stability ____, and the doctors allowed him to paint outdoors.
Vincent took ____ of this freedom and produced several beautiful landscapes, such as The Garden of the Hospital in Arles.
The picture illustrates a spring garden filled with flowers and ____ with different colors and tones.
The flowers are in full ____, and the small trees are leafy.
The ____ trees, however, have few leaves.
This is rather odd given that the season is ____.
Perhaps this ____ reflects the 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 ____é and gift shops.
The garden was ____ to resemble Vincent’s painting as much as possible.
Arles and its provincial countryside inspired Vincent to create ____, more exciting landscapes.
He had ____ for brighter colors and softer light in Paris.
In Arles, he found them. Today, more than 200 years later, this beautiful city ____ just as attractive.
The combination of Roman historic sites and Vincent’s story creates a ____ mood that will inspire you just as the city had inspired Vincent.