Shown at the Tate Britain from 23 September 2009 to 31 January 2010. To be shown at the Prado, Madrid from 22 June to 19 September 2010.

The British landscapist J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) was highly unusual in that he responded to the works of the old Masters and his contemporaries throughout his lengthy career. This often anxious, pernickety, deliberately competitive but always fertile exchange was an integral part of his work as a painter. Turner emerged in the mid-1790s as a particularly gifted and ambitious watercolourist, rivalling his greatest contemporaries (including his friend Thomas Girton (1775-1802)) but also eager to improve his painting technique by studying the Welsh landscapist Richard Wilson (1713-1782) and visiting private collections.

At first he faithfully applied the methods of the budding English watercolour tradition. When he turned to oil painting, he took inspiration from the Dutch landscape painters in the Rembrandt tradition, using a narrow, sombre colour range. The stimulating and already classical example of his great predecessor Richard Wilson led him, towards the turn of the century, to tackle classical landscapes of broader scope and brighter colours. At the same time he studied the art of the great landscape painters working in Italy in the 17th century: Salvatore Rosa (1615-1673) and Nicolas Poussin (1596-1665). Far from producing pastiches of these great models, Turner let powerful, turbulent energy upset the perfection of their harmonious compositions and came close to launching the masterly British tradition of fantastic landscapes with The Deluge (1805, Tate) directly inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin (1664, Louvre).

The two canvases will be shown side-by-side in the exhibition. Turner’s few sallies into history painting (The Holy Family, 1803, Queen’s collection, or Venus and Adonis: Adonis departing for the chase circa 1805, private collection) used richer, deeper colours influenced by Titian (circa 1490-1576) (Virgin with a Rabbit circa 1530, Louvre) and Claude Lorrain. His small figure paintings rival with lesser known masters from the period such as Watteau (1684-1721) (What you will!, 1822, Williamstown, Clark Institute) or his most famous rivals such David Wilkie (1785-1841). The fruitful dialogue with the landscape artists of the following generation, Bonington (1802-1828) (French Coast with Fishermen 1826, Tate) and Constable (1776-1837) (The opening of Waterloo Bridge, 1829, Tate) amplified the freedom of Turner’s brushwork and tone (Calais Sands, Low Water, Poissards Collecting Bait, 1830, Bury Art Gallery or Beached Boat circa 1828, Tate).
After 1820, his discovery of Venice (Venice from the Porch of the Madonna della Salute, 1835, New York, Metropolitan Museum) and a more intensive study of Claude Lorrain led to more sophisticated colour and a mastery of multiplane, vaporous compositions (Palestrina Composition, 1828, Tate). As Turner himself wished, the exhibition will compare one of his most complex masterpieces, The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire (1817, Tate) with two of Claude Lorrain’s magnificent visions which inspired it: Sunset at sea (Louvre, 1639) and Le Débarquement de Cléopâtre à Tarse (Louvre)
By deliberately engaging with other painters, Turner developed his dazzling freedom to paint which reached its apogee in the last decade of his career (Snow Storm, Steam-Boat Off a Harbour’s Mouth, 1842, London, Tate).

“Turner and the Masters” is an illustrated demonstration of the way Turner constructed his remarkable vision throughout his long career. It brings together a hundred paintings and graphic works (studies, engravings) from major British and American collections, the Louvre, the Prado and the Tate Britain.

Toutes les infos sur les épreuves de langues au bac, c’est ici . Ne vous inquiétez pas si cela concerne l’espagnol, c’est la même chose pour l’Anglais LV1.

Allez voir un film en VO  !!

Bright Star passe actuellement en VO au Lido à St Raphaël :

Voici les horaires :

BRIGHT STAR (v.o .) jeu 15h50 21h ven lun 14h 18h15 dim 18h40 mar 15h50

  this poem is  by John Keats, nowadays considered one of the major romantic poets.
   The sonnet “Bright Star” was adapted for Fanny Brawne, whom the poet was engaged to in the last years of his life.  Jane Campion based her biopic on John Keats’ ultimate years and the passion he and Fanny Brawne felt for each other.  Here is the trailer :

Like all of us who read “The Catcher in the Rye”, I was saddened by the death of J.D. Salinger. That’s why I decided to tell you a few words about it today in class and I thought a short article would be useful.

Although J.D. Salinger has written many short stories, The Catcher in the Rye is Salinger’s only novel and his most notable work, earning him great fame and admiration.

At the beginning of his story, Holden Caulfield  is a student at Pencey Prep School, irresponsible and immature.  He has been expelled for failing four out of his five classes. Holden packs up and leaves the school in the middle of the night after an altercation with his roommate. He takes a train to New York, but does not want to return to his family and instead checks into the dilapidated Edmont Hotel. There, he spends an evening dancing with three tourist girls and has a clumsy encounter with a prostitute; he refuses to do anything with her and, after he tells her he just wants to talk, she becomes annoyed with him and leaves. However, he still pays her for her time. Holden spends a total of three days in the city, characterized largely by drunkenness and loneliness. At one point he ends up at a museum, where he contrasts his life with the statues of Eskimos on display. For as long as he can remember, the statues have been unchanging. These concerns may have stemmed largely from the death of his brother, Allie. Eventually, he sneaks into his parents’ apartment while they are away, to visit his younger sister, Phoebe, who is nearly the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate. After leaving his parents’ apartment, Holden then drops by to see his old English teacher, Mr. Antolini, in the middle of the night, and is offered advice on life and a place to sleep. Mr. Antolini tells Holden that it is the stronger man who lives humbly, rather than dies nobly, for a cause. This rebukes Holden’s ideas of becoming a “catcher in the rye,” a godlike figure who symbolically saves children from “falling off a crazy cliff” and being exposed to the evils of adulthood. Holden intends to move out west; he relays these plans to his sister, who decides she wants to go with him. He refuses to take her, and when she becomes upset with him, he tells her that he will no longer go.

The Catcher in the Rye is written in first person from the point of view of its protagonist, Holden Caufield, a writing style known as stream of consciousness), which seems to follow the protagonist’s exact thought process.

The Catcher in the Rye has been listed as one of the best novels of the 20th century.

These are the only two pictures we have of Salinger. Salinger became reclusive after the publication of The Catcher in The Rye and  gradually withdrew from public view. Some people think that he was unable to deal with the traumatic nature of his war service.