Há inúmeros museus incríveis ao redor do mundo que podem ser visitados virtualmente. Por exemplo, no museu National Gallery de Londres, é possível ler sobre as obras, vê-las bem de perto, ouvir podcasts e, além de se encantar com a arte, essas visitas virtuais podem ser uma ferramenta de estudo de inglês.

A seguir, você verá um exercício de vocabulário a partir de um artigo de Alastair Sooke sobre o quadro "Sunflowers", uma das mais famosas pinturas de Van Gogh.

Fill in the blanks with the words below:

Brighten up — Belongs to — Whitewashed — Northerly — Ferociously — Dazzingly — Stretching — Prevented — Settled — Realise — Hardly — Figure — Unaware — A series of — Brothels — Whose — Whom

Sometimes a work of art is so 1._____________ famous that it can blind people to its original context and meaning. That surely is the case with Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Take the version in London’s National Gallery that the Dutch artist painted in Arles in the South of France in August 1888. 

The picture gives a dynamic, 2.________________ colourful** twist to the long tradition of Dutch flower painting 3. __________________ back to the 17th Century. Since it entered the National Gallery’s collection in 1924, it has also proved phenomenally popular. In 2013, more postcards of this painting were sold in the gallery’s shop – the exact 4. _____________ was 26,110 – than of any other picture in the entire collection.

But many of the more than 5 million people who visit the National Gallery every year will be 5. _____________that the painting 6. ______________ a series of four extraordinary sunflower paintings that Van Gogh created in less than a week during the summer of 1888, when a 7.______________  cold 8. ________________ him from working outdoors.

A bouquet of art

“The public is 9. ____________ aware that Van Gogh created 10. _____________ paintings of sunflowers,” says Leo Jansen, a curator at the Van Gogh Museum and editor of the artist’s letters. “For nine out of 10 people I tell, it’s news.” “A lot of people know one of the Sunflowers, and don’t even 11. _____________ there was a series,” agrees Martin Bailey, 12. _____________ book The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece was published in 2013.

Van Gogh painted sunflowers for the first time in the summer of 1886. Two years later, his interest re-emerged after he 13. ______________ at Arles, just north of Marseille in Provence. Having invited the Post-Impressionist French artist Paul Gauguin, 14. __________ he admired, to join his Studio of the South, he began painting sunflowers 15. ______________ the 16. ________________ interiors of the yellow house he was renting at 2 Place Lamartine, not far from the town’s railway station and                  17. _________________.

Se você não conhecer algumas das palavras deste texto, consulte The Free Dicionary. Uma ótima oportunidade de estudo é a pesquisa em dicionários. 

 Respostas

Sometimes a work of art is so dazzlingly famous that it can blind people to its original context and meaning. That surely is the case with Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Take the version in London’s National Gallery that the Dutch artist painted in Arles in the South of France in August 1888.

The picture gives a dynamic, ferociously colourful twist to the long tradition of Dutch flower painting stretching back to the 17th Century. Since it entered the National Gallery’s collection in 1924, it has also proved phenomenally popular. In 2013, more postcards of this painting were sold in the gallery’s shop – the exact figure was 26,110 – than of any other picture in the entire collection.

But many of the more than 5 million people who visit the National Gallery every year will be unaware that the painting belongs to a series of four extraordinary sunflower paintings that Van Gogh created in less than a week during the summer of 1888, when a cold northerly wind prevented him from working outdoors.

A bouquet of art

“The public is hardly aware that Van Gogh created a series of paintings of sunflowers,” says Leo Jansen, a curator at the Van Gogh Museum and editor of the artist’s letters. “For nine out of 10 people I tell, it’s news.” “A lot of people know one of the Sunflowers, and don’t even realise there was a series,” agrees Martin Bailey, whose book The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece was published in 2013.

Van Gogh painted sunflowers for the first time in the summer of 1886. Two years later, his interest re-emerged after he settled at Arles, just north of Marseille in Provence. Having invited the Post-Impressionist French artist Paul Gauguin, whom he admired, to join his Studio of the South, he began painting sunflowers to brighten up the whitewashed interiors of the yellow house he was renting at 2 Place Lamartine, not far from the town’s railway station and brothels.

Gostou do exercício? Agora leia a íntegra do artigo no site da BBC para aprender mais sobre a obra de Van Gogh e, de quebra, aprender ainda mais inglês. 

Lígia Velozo Crispino é fundadora e sócia-diretora da Companhia de Idiomas. É coautora do Guia Corporativo Política de Treinamento para RHs e autora do livro de poemas Fora da Linha e organizadora do Sarau Conversar na Livraria Martins Fontes.