Art in New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MET is the most famous museum in New York City and one of the most famous in the world. You can spend an entire day looking at the paintings, sculptures and more.

The Museum of Modern Art or the MoMA offers the finest collection of late 19-20^th century art.

The Guggenheim Museum is in itself a building that steals the show. You can find in the permanent collection post-impressionist masterpieces.

The Frick Collection is housed in the former mansion of Henry Clay Frick, a millionaire who spent millions on a superb collection of works. If you go to New York this museum must be on the top list of places to visit.

Famous American Painters

Copley, Mrs. Joshua Henshaw II

John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) is best known for his portraits of important people in colonial America.

Stuart, Washington

Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) is best known for painting George Washington portrait.

França, The Churchill Children

Manuel Joachim de França (1808-1865) is best known for being the St Louis (Missouri) most fashionable portrait painter.

Homer, summer night

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) is best known for his marine subjects

Whistler, Whistler´s mother

James Mcneill Whistler (1834-1903) is best known for his respected and sometimes parodied work “Whistler´s mother”.

 

Cassatt, Mother and Child

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) is best known for being the only American artist member of the Impressionist group in Paris.She painted mainly mothers and children.

Sargent, Madame X

 John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) is best known for being the leading portrait painter of his generation.

Remington, The Scout, Friends or Foes

Frederic S. Remington (1861-1909) is best known for his depictions of the Old American West.

 Hopper, The Lighthouse at Two Lights

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is best known for painting scenes of New England evoking isolation.

O´Keeffe, Calla Lilies with Red Anemone

Georgia O´keeffe (1887-1986) is best known for revolutionizing the tradition of flower painting.

Davis, Hot Still- Scape for Six Colors

Stuart Davis (1892-1964) is best known for his jazz influenced paintings.

De Kooning, Woman

Willem De Kooning (1904-) is best known for his abstract expressionist paintings.

Pollock, Eyes in the Heat

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)is best known for his “drip” paintings.

Warhol, Jackie Kennedy

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is best known as a leading figure in the pop art movement.

Chuck Close (1940-) is best known for his photorealistic  work.

References:

Montebello, P. (dir). The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 1994

Art in London

Most people are very impressed by the amount of art on display in London.

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has one of the largest collections of pictures in the world.

The National Portrait Gallery is situated just around the corner from the National Gallery.

Tate Britain is on the river Thames and it´s near the Houses of Parliament. There are a lot of modern paintings there as well as pictures by Turner and Constable, but many of the very recent ones have been taken to Tate Modern. Art enthusiasts can travel from Tate Modern to Tate Britain by a boat service called "Tate to Tate".

Famous British Painters

Hogarth, The Marriage Contract

William Hogarth (1697-1764) is best known for his satirical drawings of 18^th century London life.

Reynolds, Miss Bowles

Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) is best known for being a portrait painter and the first president of the Royal Academy.

Stubbs, Bay Hunter by a Lake

George Stubbs (1724-1806) is best known for his paintings of horses.

Gainsborough, Mrs. Grace Dalryr

 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) is best known for his paintings of ladies in big long dresses with large curly silver wigs.

Blake, Seven spirits of God

William Blake (1757-1827) is best known for his mystical religious paintings and his poetry.

Turner, Fishermen at sea

William Turner (1775-1851) is best known for his paintings of sea, sky, ships and landscapes.

Constable, the Cornfield

John Constable (1776-1837) is best known for his paintings of English country landscapes.

Palmer, Garden in Shoreham

Samuel Palmer (1803-1881) is best known for producing small landscapes with intense religious feelings.

Frith, Annie Gambart

William Powell Frith (1819-1909) is best known for being one of Queen Victoria´s favourite painters.

Millais, Leisure Hours

John Everett Millais (1829-1896) is best known for being one of the most prosperous artists in history.

Lowry, A Riverbank

L S Lowry (1887-1976) is best known for his paintings of British northern industrial towns. 

Bacon, Study for a Crucifixion

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is best known for his graphic abstract figures.

Hockney, Pool with two figures

David Hockney (1937-) is best known for his paintings of Californian swimming pools and 1960s people.

References :

Johnson, Sarah and Jane Myles. London! Scholastic, 2007

Vaizey, Marina. 100 Masterpieces of Art. Peerage Books, 1979

Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day in Britain is a great excuse for enjoying some pancakes.

 

In many places in Britain, there are pancake tossing competitions on Pancake Day. The person who cooks and tosses the most pancakes wins.

PANCAKES

Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour
1 egg
1 cup of milk



Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender.


2. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat. Pour the batter onto the pan. Brown on both sides and serve hot.


3. TRY tossing the pancake but BE CAREFUL not to glue it to the ceiling.


One of the many great things about pancakes is that they provide a delicious breakfast as well as a yummy mid-afternoon snack if you feel like eating something sweet. There are many ways of serving pancakes:

The traditional British manner with freshly squeezed  lemon juice and sugar.

Simple with sugar and cinnamon

A popular choice with melted chocolate

A Madeira favourite with sugarcane honey

The famous Canadian and American Maple Syrup

The healthiest choice: fruit

Presidents’ Day

US Presidents’ Day originally marks the birth anniversary of US President George Washington (born on 22nd February 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (born on 12th February 1809), but it is considered to honour all US presidents.

It is a holiday celebrated on the 3^rd Monday in February.

Retailers use this holiday to promote sales, mainly car sales.

Faces of American Presidents in coins:

1- Cent coin (penny) - President Abraham Lincoln

5- Cent coin (nickel) - President Thomas Jefferson

10-Cent coin (dime) - President Franklin D. Roosevelt

25-Cent coin (quarter) – President George Washington

50-Cent coin – President John F. Kennedy

Faces of American Presidents in bills:

 $1- George Washington

$2 – Thomas Jefferson

$5- Abraham Lincoln

$10 – Alexander Hamilton (First Secretary of the Treasury)

$20 – Andrew Jackson

$50 – Ulysses S. Grant

$100 – Benjamin Franklin (Statesman)

How long can a President stay in the White House before everyone votes again?

Add:

the number of letters in the word MISSISSIPPI

the number of stripes on the US flag

the number of letters in the fourth month of the year

the number of cents in “a quarter”

Now take away

the number of stars in the US flag

Remember: People can elect a president for a second term, but not a third one.

Read more about American Presidents (in Portuguese)

Read the chronology of the American and Portuguese Presidents.

Now you can answer the Quiz about American Presidents


Read : The Fourth of July


References:
Myles, Jane. Holidays and Special Days in the USA.Scholastic, 2001

School Year 2011/2012

JANE EYRE- A love story

JANE EYRE- Lithograph by Paula Rego

Paula Rego is a Portuguese painter who lives and works in England. In Cascais you can find a collection of her works in Casa das Histórias. It opened in 2009 and the building is a work of the awarded Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura.

 

 

http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/

JANE EYRE is a novel by Charlotte Brontë. It was published in 1847 and covers five stages:

1-   Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins;

2-   her education at Lowood School, where she makes acquaintance with friends but also suffers privations and oppression;

3-    her time as governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with Mr. Rochester;

4-    her time with the Rivers family during which her cousin and clergyman proposes to her;

5-   and the finale with her marriage to her beloved Mr.Rochester.

There have been many adaptations of JANE EYRE for the screen.

Happy Valentine´s Day

Valentine´s Day in Dartmouth, Massachussets.

A LOVE sculpture in New York (6th Av.) designed by the American artist Robert Indiana.

His work LOVE was first created for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964 and later was included on an eight-cent US Postal Servicepostage stamp in 1973. Sculptural versions of the image have been installed at numerous American locations, such as the one in Philadelphia, that gave the name to the park.

LOVE park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia.

A Love poem By William Shakespeare

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?	Shall I compare you to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:	You are more lovely and more constant:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,	Rough winds shake the beloved buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:	And summer is far too short:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,	At times the sun is too hot,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;	Or often goes behind the clouds;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,	And everything beautiful sometime will lose its beauty,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;	By misfortune or by nature's planned out course.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade	But your youth shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;	Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,	Nor will death claim you for his own,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:	Because in my eternal verse you will live forever.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,	So long as there are people on this earth,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.	So long will this poem live on, making you immortal.  

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens nasceu em 7 de Fevereiro de 1812 em Portsmouth, Inglaterra. Hoje comemora-se o 200º aniversário do seu nascimento. Foi funcionário num escritório de advogados e depois jornalista. Nesta segunda atividade começou  como cronista judicial e, mais tarde, relatou os debates parlamentares, cobrindo ainda as campanhas eleitorais, pelo que percorreu de diligência a Grã-Bretanha. Sem qualquer dúvida as experiências destas profissões refletem-se nas suas obras e o facto de ter tomado conhecimento das contradições e misérias sociais deverão ter contribuído para ganhar uma sensibilidade e consciência das injustiças da sociedade do seu tempo. Charles Dickens viveu numa época de profundas transformações sócio-económicas devido à industrialização. As suas obras espelham as diferenças de classes, vícios e ganâncias, assim como a generosidade dos tempos vitorianos.  

  

Com pouco mais de vinte anos, o seu livro The Pickwick Papers, consagrou-o  como escritor. Também se estreou como ator em peças teatrais e fazia leituras das suas obras e discursos para fins de caridade.

Em 1836 casou com Catherine Hogarth, com quem teve 10 filhos.

Dickens viajou muito. Visitou a França, Bélgica, Estados Unidos e Canadá  e escreveu relatos das suas viagens. Travou amizade com muitos escritores contemporâneos.

 

Em 1838, surgiu  a sua obra Oliver Twist, na qual pela primeira vez  se apontava para os males sociais da era vitoriana. Na época foi muito criticado por não fazer um retrato psicológico aprofundado  das suas personagens a quem faltava alguma complexidade.

Em 1843, saiu o seu mais famoso livro de Natal, A Christmas Carol, do qual já se fizeram muitas versões cinematográficas e teatrais.

 

Em 1849 publicou aquele que viria a ser o mais popular dos seus romances, David Copperfield (inspirado, em grande parte, na sua própria vida) e, em 1854 Hard Times, outra obra igualmente muito famosa.

Em 1858 separou-se da mulher, mas continuou a sustentá-la até à morte desta.

 

A maior parte dos principais romances de Dickens saíram impressos, mensal ou semanalmente, por episódios em jornais. Eram depois reunidos em livros tal como os conhecemos atualmente. À semelhança das obras de muitos escritores da época a publicação em episódios separados tornava as histórias mais acessíveis, criando expetativa entre o público e constituíam uma forma de atrair leitores e aumentar a circulação dos jornais.

Morreu em junho de 1870. Foi sepultado no Poets' Corner em  Westminster Abbey. Na sua sepultura está gravado: "Apoiante dos pobres, dos que sofrem e dos oprimidos; e com a sua morte, um dos maiores escritores de Inglaterra desaparecia para o mundo."

O príncipe Charles e a mulher participaram nas homenagens relacionadas com o bicentenário de nascimento de Charles Dickens, o escritor mais popular e expressivo da Inglaterra vitoriana.

Charles e Camilla depositaram uma coroa de flores no túmulo do autor, no Canto dos Poetas da Abadia de Westminster, em Londres, onde se celebrou uma missa. Além de personalidades britânicas, a cerimónia também contou com descendentes do escritor.

Como parte das celebrações o Príncipe de Gales e a mulher também visitaram o museu de Charles Dickens, na casa onde o romancista viveu com Catherine Hogarth, entre 1837 e 1839 e onde nasceram três dos seus dez filhos.

http://www.dickensmuseum.com/

O site da Google também presta uma homenagem ao escritor com um logo que lembra a cidade de Londres do século XIX.

Referências:
Smiley, Jane. Charles Dickens. London: Viking Penguin, 2002

Waitangi Day

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840. It made New Zealand part of the British Empire and guaranteed Maori rights to their land.
The town of Waitangi (weeping waters in Maori) is located in the Bay of Islands on the North Island.
The early Polinesian settlers in New Zealand called the country AOTEAROA, which means LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD.
The Maoris are the native people of New Zealand. Today they make up over 14% of the population. They were living in New Zealand for a long time before the white settlers arrived from Europe.
In 1642 ABEL TASMAN, a Dutch explorer, was the first European to discover New Zealand. The country was named after the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands.

The New Zealanders are known by the nickname kiwi throughout the world. A Kiwi is a flightless bird endemic to New Zealand. It is also the name of a fruit of Chinese origin but grown in New Zealand on a large scale.

 

 

Rugby is the national sport of New Zealand. The national team performs the Haka, a traditional Maori war dance just before the game starts.

Edmund Hillary (1919-2008)

A great explorer

and

much loved New Zealand hero, who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, in 1953. Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand.

His face is on the five dollar note.

References:

Pelteret, Cheryl. Customs & Lifestyle in the English-Speaking World. Scholastic. London, 2007.