Lust for Life
Irving Stone
Lust for Life(1)
• Lust for Life is biographical novel of
Irving Stone. The dramatic life of
Dutch Artist Vincent Van Gough is
drawn by the author. This story is
based on Van Gough’s three volume of
letters to his brother Theo (19271930).
Lust for Life(2)
• The story begins with romanticism of Van
Gough at London with Ursula. He was then
twenty one and in love for the first time.
He thought that time he would be
fortunate if he could eat breakfast
opposite Ursula for the rest of the days.
But it had tragic end. Ursula replied “Do I
marry every man that falls love with me.
Van Gough got title Red Headed Fool.
Lust for Life(3)
• Van Gough’s next destination was
Borinage , a coal mining region , in the
south of Belgium. Petit Wesmes was
the miners’ village. It could boast of
one brick building , the home of Jean
Baptist Danis. It was the house
Vincent made his way .
Lust for Life(4)
• He started sketching in Borinage coal
mines where he simply wanted to record
his first impression but his anatomy was all
wrong, his proportions were grotesque and
his drawing was so outlandish as to be
funny. He wanted to copy an old woman
carrying hot water on a wintry street. But
he could not manage it.
Lust for Life(5)
• He started to enter the miners’s hut carrying
drawing paper and crayon. He sketched the
children playing in the floor. He sketched
Marcasse with its tall chimney , the black fields ,
the pine wood across the ravine, the peasants
ploughing around Paturages but his new hunger
was desire to talk with artists. This period he
lived for days on dry breads .He was desperate
need of money . His younger brother was art
dealer. He send his drawing to know why his
drawings did not sell. He wanted know how he can
make them salable.
Lust for Life (6)
• He went back from figure to his another love
color. In Neunan he he painted half ripe corn
fields were off a golden tune, ruddy and gold
bronze, raised to maximum effect by contrast to
broken cobalt tune of the sky.
• Lastly tragic episode of Rachael. He wanted
Racheal as model but he had not five Franc.
• Instead of five Franc Racheal asked for his ear.
Lust for Life (6)
• Yes, Vincent Van Gough cut his ear with razor and
presented it to Racheal.
• Vincent painted the birds above yellow field of
corn and titled it Crows above a corn field.
• Last page dramatic exit of Van Gough .After
getting telegram from Gaachet he caught the
first tran for Pontoise,then dashed in a carriage
to Auvers.
Lust for Life (7)
• “I am open a tiny gallery of my own , Vincent and
my first exhibition will be a one man show. The
complete works of Vincent Van Gough..”
• Vincent turned his head slightly and whispered “I
wish I could die now Theo”
• In a few minutes he closed his eyes.Rousseau,
Pere Tanguy, Aurier and Emile Bernard .Six of the
men worked putting up the paintings in the wall.
Theo stood alone by the coffin.
• End of a life that refused to bow the convention.
Vicent van Gogh
The Painting Machine
And my aim in my life is to make
pictures and drawings, as many and
as well as I can; then, at the end
of my life, I hope to pass away,
looking back with love and tender
regret, and thinking, ‘Oh, the
pictures I might have made!’”
--van Gogh
Van Gogh’s Growing Path
The Netherlands(1880-1885) Arles(1888-1889)
Paris (1886-1888)
Auvers-sur-Oise(1890)
Saing-Remy(1889-1890)
Theodorus van Gogh, a preacher in the Dutch Reformed
Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus, daughter of a
bookseller, marry in 1851. Their son Vincent Willem van Gogh,
the second of six children, is born on March 30, 1853, in
Zundert, a village in Brabant, in the south of the
Netherlands. Four years later, in 1857, Vincent's favorite
brother, Theodorus (Theo), is born. Vincent begins his
education at the village school in 1861, and subsequently
attends two boarding schools. He excels in languages,
studying French, English, and German. In March 1868, in the
middle of the academic year, he abruptly leaves school and
returns to Zundert. He does not resume his formal
education.
• In July 1869, Vincent starts an apprenticeship at
Goupil & Cie, international art dealers with
headquarters in Paris. He works in the Hague at a
branch gallery established by his uncle Vincent.
From the Hague, in August 1872, Vincent begins
writing regular letters to Theo. Their
correspondence continues for almost 18 years.
Theo accepts a position at Goupil's in January
1873, working in Brussels before transferring to
the Hague in November of that year
Vincent moves to the London Goupil branch in June 1873. Daily
contact with works of art kindles his appreciation of paintings
and drawings. In the city's museums and galleries, he admires
the realistic paintings of peasant life by Jean-François Millet
and Jules Breton. Gradually Vincent loses interest in his work
and turns to the Bible. He is transferred in 1874 to Goupil's
Paris branch, where he remains for three months before
returning to London. Vincent's performance at Goupil's
continues to deteriorate. In May 1875 he is sent again to
Paris. He attends art exhibitions at the Salon and the Louvre,
and decorates his room with art prints by Hague School and
Barbizon artists. In late March 1876 Vincent is dismissed
from Goupil's. Driven by a growing desire to help his fellow
man, he decides to become a clergyman.
Vincent returns to England in 1876 to teach at a boarding
school. In July he is offered a position as a teacher and
assistant preacher at Isleworth, near London. On a visit to
his parents, Vincent is persuaded not to return to England.
Determined to become a minister nonetheless, he moves to
Amsterdam in 1877 and attempts to enroll in theology school.
When he gives up his preparatory studies, Vincent briefly
enters a missionary school near Brussels and in December
1878 leaves for the Borinage, a coal-mining district in
southern Belgium, to work as a lay preacher. Vincent lives
like a pauper among the miners, sleeping on the floor and
giving away his belongings. His extreme commitment draws
disfavor from the church and he is dismissed, although he
continues to evangelize.
European Academic Art
• European art academies offered formal training in the
traditional techniques and subjects of historical,
mythological, and religious painting. The principal
academy in France, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, admitted
students only if they passed a rigorous entrance exam.
Students practiced drawing the human figure from
plaster casts before they advanced to live models.
Lectures on history supplemented lessons in anatomy
and perspective. Students did not actually paint at the
academy; instead they joined a private studio where
painting was taught. The most meaningful
accomplishment, for both students and established
artists, was acceptance to the Salon, the foremost
venue for the exhibition of contemporary art. By the
late 19th century, this juried show had grown to
mammoth size, peaking at more than 7,000 works in
1880.
Realism
• Realism in art is an attitude as much as a style.
From the mid-19th century, Realist painters
rebelled against the art academies and their
old-fashioned themes, which seemed
increasingly irrelevant in a world newly
dominated by science and technology. The
Realists reasoned that all meaningful
knowledge came from what they could see and
directly experience. Instead of depicting
aristocrats and myths, they chose ordinary
people and events as the subjects of their
works. Gustave Courbet, the leader of the
movement in art, expressed the Realists'
point of view when he declared that he could
not draw an angel because he had never seen
one.
Impressionism
• Like the Realists before them, the Impressionists
chose subjects from daily life. Instead of peasants,
however, they painted the leisured members of the
Parisian middle class. The transitory effects of light
and atmosphere were central to their depictions of
boating parties, trips to the seaside, and the cafés
and boulevards of Paris. Working quickly, often outof-doors, the Impressionists used light colors and a
flickering, broken brushstroke to express the
immediacy of a scene. The major Impressionist
figures were August Renoir, Claude Monet, Camille
Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt,
and Berthe Morisot. Critics initially reviled what they
saw as their slipshod technique and unconventional
subjects, but by the time Van Gogh first saw their
paintings in 1886, the style was gaining acceptance.
The Painters-Boat
Claude Monet
1874
Impressionism
Woman
with a
Parasol
(Right)
Claude
Monet
1886
Impressionism
This is a characteristic
example of an
Impressionist painting.
Freely applying light,
unmixed colors, Monet
gave a rapidly executed
impression of a
quintessentially Dutch
landscape of bulb fields
and windmills. The painter
was apparently delighted
by the subject: during his
stay in Holland in 1886 he
painted - in under ten
days - no fewer than five
paintings of bulb fields.
Landscape: study after nature
Paul Cuizanne
1876
Impressionism
Dance near the Mill of Galette
Auguste Renoir
1876
Impressionism
La Danaide
Auguste
Rodin
1889
Marmer
Impressionism
• Wrestling with his desire to be
useful, in 1880 Vincent decides he
can become an artist and still be in
God's service. He writes: "To try to
understand the real significance of
what the great artists, the serious
masters, tell us in their
masterpieces, that leads to God;
one man wrote or told it in a book;
another, in a picture."
• Vincent spends several weeks
in The Hague in late 1881
taking painting lessons from
his cousin by marriage, Anton
Mauve, a leading member of
the Hague School. Mauve
introduces him to watercolor
and oil technique.
Neoimpressionism
• The last Impressionist exhibition, held in 1886,
witnessed the end of one artistic era and the
beginning of another. The show included startling
new paintings by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac,
artists who would form the core of the
Neoimpressionist movement. Seurat hoped to
substitute a scientific basis for the intuitive color
and casual brushwork of the Impressionists. He
studied color theory and devised a systematic
method of applying tiny dots of pure color to the
canvas. These isolated bits of color were meant to
blend in the viewer's eye to produce a coherent
image. Called "pointillism" or "divisionism," this
painstaking technique was much different from the
spontaneous Impressionist approach. Van Gogh did
not subscribe to Seurat's color theory-"I often
think about his method, and yet I don't follow it at
all"-but the Neoimpressionist style helped Vincent
find his own distinctive brushstroke of streaks and
dashes.
Postimpressionism
• The late-19th-century artists known as the
Postimpressionists did not share a set style or subject.
They were a diverse lot, which included Cézanne,
Seurat, Redon, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Many of them
had experimented with the techniques of
Impressionism. But where the Impressionists saw
fleeting light, the Postimpressionists looked for
underlying structure or color harmonies. They gave
birth to movements such as Pointillism, Fauvism, and
Symbolism. Their experiments were the first step
towards artworks that gave more importance to
emotion than to objective reality. This is why they are
considered the forerunners of modern art.
Entrance to the Harbor, HonfleurGeorge
Seurat 1886
Post-Impressionism / Pointillism
Conversation
in the
Meadows
Paul Gaugain
1888
PostImpressionism
Gardane
Paul Cuizanne
1885 - 1886
Post-Impressionism
The
Mountan
'Sainte
Victoire
and a big
pinetree
Paul
Cuizanne
The Green
Christ / The
Breton
Crossing
Paul Gaugain
1889
PostImpressionism
Souvenir
of
Mauve
Vincent
van
Gogh
Evening
stroll
Vincent
van
Gogh
In early 1887, Paul Gauguin spent a few months
in Martinique. This island paradise, with its
friendly inhabitants still living close to nature,
was the inspiration for many colorful paintings.
Although its thin brushstrokes appear to be a
legacy of Impressionism, this work is more than
a snatched impression of reality. Gauguin drew
the imagery for his work from fantasy and his
imagination. To convey a particular atmosphere
or feeling, he frequently chose colors that
diverged from the normal. His work was thus a
reaction to Impressionism, whose cardinal
principle was to reflect reality as it was visually
perceived. For this reason Gauguin is counted as
one of the so-called Postimpressionists.
Expressionism
1905 - present
• In the early years of the
expressionism (before world
war II), the artists built on
the ideas of the
Post-impressionism.
Expressionism (2)
• In 1911, the term 'Expressionism'
was used for art for the first time.
In the beginning the term was used
only for the German artists who
painted art belonging to this
movement from 1905 on. Later other
artist were count to this movement
as well.
• Expressionism (3)
• Characteristic for the Expressionism
is the way in which the artist tried to
express those feelings and
interpretations. They did not create
scenes reflecting their feelings and
interpretations. They did reflect
them by the use of forms and colors,
often not having any relation to the
visible reality at all.
Bathing
Emma
Barrera
-Bossi
1911
Expressionism
Der
Mandrill
Franz
Marc
1913
Expressionism
Selfportret
with a
Model
Ernst
Kirchner
1910
Expressionism
Die Brbcke
Blue Fillies
Franz
Marc
1913
Expressionism
Der Blaue Reiter
Analysis of the Text
fierce / adj. intense, uncontrollably strong
e.g. a fierce effort; a fierce loyalty
fierce pride;
fierce pain
a fierce silence
Gee, it was fierce of me!
burn off / v. to destroy by fire; to clear up
e.g. The farmers burnt off the fields.
e.g. It will burn off before noon.
Analysis of the Text
encase / vt. Surround or cover sth. with a
case (often in passive)
e.g. His broken leg was encased in plaster.
e.g. His feet were encased in his best
leather shoes.
[Word Formation]
Prefix enen-+n. = v. enslave encourage
en-+a. = v. enlarge enfeeble
en-+v. = v. Enclose encamp
Analysis of the Text
Cf.
Suffix -en
a.+-en = v. deepen sharpen
n.+-en = v. lengthen heighten
n.+-en = a. woolen ashen
tell…from / v. recognize the difference,
distinguish…from…
e.g. tell one twin from the other
e.g. tell natural silk from artificial
ploughland / n. cultivated land, arable land
about 120 acres of land which
8 heads of cattle plough yearly
Analysis of the Text
in blossom / bearing blossom
e.g. The apple trees are in blossom.
vicious / adj. brutal; savage
e.g. a vicious killer
the most vicious system
vicious letters
vicious circle
We were chained to a vicious circle
of violence.
Analysis of the Text
spring up / v. to appear or come into
existence quickly
e.g. Computer stores are springing up all
over the place.
e.g. A fresh wind had sprung up.
at intervals / happening again and again
e.g. at regular intervals
e.g. at weekly intervals
e.g. at monthly intervals
e.g. at quarterly intervals
e.g. at yearly intervals
Analysis of the Text
in between / in the space or period of time
separating two points
e.g. The shadows and the spaces in
between the trees were turning from
grey to black.
sparkle / v. glitter; shine
e.g. The lawn outside was sparkling with
frost.
e.g. He is quite different at parties, and
he really sparkles.
Analysis of the Text
at the risk of / with the possibility of
doing sth.
e.g. At the risk of seeming callous, I
propose that we go straight to
the football match after the
funeral.
e.g. He saved her at the risk of his
life.
Analysis of the Text
swindle / v. cheat sb., esp. in business
e.g. You are easily swindled. (~ + n.)
e.g. I have been swindled out of $5.
(~ sb. out of sth.)
e.g. She swindled $1000 out of the Social
Security. (~ sth. out of sth./sb.)
swindle / n. act of swindling; person or thing
that is wrongly expressed so as
to cheat people
e.g. victims of a tax swindle
e.g. The newspaper story is a complete
swindle.
Analysis of the Texr
swindler / n. person who swindles
e.g. The biggest swindler in finance
give up thoughts of / don’t think about
come one’s way / occur or present itself to one
e.g. An opportunity like that doesn’t often come
my way.
vitality / n. physical or mental energy
e.g. The vitality of the movement is threatened.
vital / adj. essential or important to life
e.g. The heart performs a vital bodily function.
adj. essential to the existence of sth.
e.g. Vital information
Daudet
ALPHONSE DAUDET was born at Nîmes in the south of
France on May 13, 1840. His father was an
unsuccessful silk manufacturer, and his boyhood was
far from happy.
In 1872 he produced the first of his three volumes on
the amazing “Tartarin of Tarascon,” probably the
most vital of all his creations.
“Tartarin” reappeared in all his buoyancy in “Tartarin sur
les Alpes,” and, less successfully as a colonist in “PortTarascon.”
He died at Paris on December 17, 1897.
“The Siege of Berlin,” “The Last Class,” and “The Bad
Zouave” are not only classics of the art of the short
story; they contain the essence of French patriotism
Analysis of the Text
stimulating / adj. inspiring new ideas
e.g. The stimulating effect of coffee
stimulus/stimuli /n. sth. that produces a reaction
e.g. to respond to auditory stimuli, etc.
stimulation / n. stimulus
e.g. The stimulation of fierce competition
burn up / v. to destroy by fire
e.g. The satellite had burned up on re-entering the
atmosphere.
deter / v. to discourage or prevent sb. from doing
e.g. The punishment did not deter him.
Analysis of the Text
vitalize / v. to fill with life
e.g. to vitalize the patriotism
e.g. to vitalize the progress
Tales of Tartarin by Daudet
stimulant / n. (drink containing) a drug that
increases physical or mental activity
e.g. Coffee and tea are mild stimulants.
e.g. stimulant drugs
(Word formation)
stimulate / v. to encourage to start or progress
further
e.g. To stimulate interest’s in the artist’s works
Analysis of the Text
e.g. Failure did not deter him from making
progress.
ooze / v. come or flow out slowly, usually ~ from/out
of sth.
e.g. All the toothpaste had oozed out.
e.g. Their courage was oozing away.
no more … than …/ 同…一样不…
e.g. He is no more able to read Spanish than I am.
e.g. You are no more capable of speaking Chinese
than I am.
e.g. He is no more a good player than I am.
e.g. I am no more satisfied than she is.
Analysis of the Text
no less…than…/ 与…一样（表示同等）
e.g. A dolphin is no less a clever animal than a dog
is.
not more…than…./ 不比…更…
e.g. The new edition is not more expensive than
the old edition.
e.g. She was not more pleased than I was.
c.f. She was no more pleased than I was.
not less…than… / 不亚于
e.g. She is not less charming than her daughter.
Analysis of the Text
no more than / only, at most
e.g. It cost him no more than 10 dollars a week.
e.g. It is no more than a mile to shops.
e.g. She ate no more than a slice of toast for
breakfast.
e.g. The theatre was no more than a painted barn.
no less than / as many (much) as
e.g. There are no less than eight thousand
students in our university.
Analysis of the Text
Paragraph 21
…could do without…; …could do without…;
…could do without…; …could do without….
This structure is called Parallelism, which is used to
emphasize something.
Try to find the faulty parallelism in the following:
1. To chew carefully and eating slowly are
necessary for good digestion.
2. As time passed, his feeling turned to anxiety,
disbelief, and finally becoming deeply concerned
Analysis of the Text
3. My job with a travel agency paid well and
excitement was provided.
4. I hope either to spend vacation in France
or Spain.
5. He is a man of wide experience and very
popular with the workers.
6. I am interested in electronics, because it
is a new field and which offers interesting
opportunities to one who knows science.
Analysis of the Text
Part 1 (paras 1~2)
Vincent’s daily life, like a blind painting machine.
Part 2 (paras 3~9)
Vincent was drunk with color.
Part 3 (paras 10~17)
Vincent painted hard without paying attention to
anything else.
Part 4 (paras 18~19)
Beautiful Nature was the sources of Vincent’s
creation.
Part 5 (paras 20~21)
Vincent lived on the power and ability to create.
Summary of the Text
To make the image of painting machine vivid and
full, the writer gives detailed pictures of Vincent’s
daily life and his creation process: he got up early
and returned with finished canvases by evening; he
kept doing the same day by day with beautiful
nature as his sources of creation; he put everything
he experienced in his painting; he was dissatisfied
with himself and what he was painting, with this in
his mind, he went on painting without thinking of
food, wife, children, or home; he painted on and on
just like a blind painting machine.
Summary Writing
Summary and abstract
A summary is an expression of the chief content of
any writing while an abstract is a very concise
summary of the main points of a formal paper ,
esp. an academic one.
To write a summary well, it is important to read the
original carefully to understand the author’s purpose.
Then it is necessary to select the central idea and
its supporting ideas. The next step is to write the
summary in brief form without referring directly to
the original, and the key point is to condense the
above ideas without distorting their rank.
Dictation (a)
Visitors to Britain are often surprised to find
that the weather is an almost inexhaustible topic of
conversation. This is not because the British are too
dull to think of anything else to talk about, but
because there is always an element of surprise in
the British climate. In some countries, people can
put away their raincoats for several weeks and let
out their fires during the burning heat of the
summer. Not so in England, where they never know
from one day to the next what is in store for
them.
Dictation (a)
One year, they had a spell of very hot weather in
early June and Mr. and Mrs. Brown decided to spend
the weekend at the seaside. When everything was in
the car, Mr. Brown drove towards the coast. Not for
long, the sky began to cloud over, and by the time
they arrived, it was dismal and wet. The cold
wind reminded them sharply of winter. They had to
sit round the fire playing indoor games.
Dictation (b)
The doctor is making the rounds of the wards. He
asks the patient many questions. But he seems to be
a little hard of hearing. He cannot hear the patient’s
words. So the nurse repeats the patient’s words to
the doctor. The patient wants to know if he is in
hospital, if there has been an accident, if he has
been badly hurt, and if he will be in hospital long.
The doctor answers all his questions. He says that
he is in hospital, that there has been an accident,
that he has not been badly hurt, and that he will
not be in hospital long.