Rendering 1


                 AFTER THE FLOOD IN PORT-MARLY: ALFRED SISLEY

    The author of the article is G. Fernández. It was published on the web site www.theartwolf.com. The article provides the information about the great painters of Impressionism, especially about Alfred Sisley.

    The author points out that when talking about Impressionism, an error is often committed when assigning to this movement a series of painters who nothing or almost nothing had in common with it, or or others who, despite having felt an early attraction to the new movement, soon separated from it. Fernández also consider those who, though being generally considered as representative members of this movement, can not be called "pure impressionists''. He points out three painters and fixes his attention on Alfred Sisley (1839-1899).

    The author gives the reader some information about this painter and his art. According to the article Alfred Sisley was above all a landscape painter. He painted several canvases depicting these floods in Port-Marly, but the two most outstanding examples are those showing the river's waters around a wine shop in the Rue of Paris. Contrary to most of the paintings depicting natural disasters, Sisley did not add to the composition any tragic or catastrophist element.

    Further the author reports that Sisley was a member of a wealthy family till the Franco-Prussian war, which bankrupted his family, sending him to a poverty for the rest of his life.

    So Fernández comes to conclusion that Sisley saw the floods in the quiet town of Port-Marly as a reflection of his own life, troubled, overflowed.

    I like Sisley's art. He depicted nature puting the whole soul into his works. His painting ''Flood at Port-Marly'' reveals an important and main part of his life. It is my favourite painting of Sisley's works.

William Somerset Maugham "The Moon and Sixpence"

Summary, 1-13 chapters

The narrator, Crabbe, knows a man named Charles Strickland for a several years, and many years later, Strickland becomes a famous painter. Crabbe decides to write a book about Strickland, and he talks about what he remembers of his experiences with Strickland. He also goes around Tahiti where Strickland lived his last years, and the narrator hears the stories of various people who remember Strickland. For most of Strickland's paintings, he is anti-social, and considered by all to be without talent, so it is a great surprise when he turns out to be a painting genius.

Crabbe first meets Strickland through his wife, Mrs. Strickland. Crabbe is a young writer in London, and Mrs. Strickland loves hosting parties for writers. When Charles leaves his wife, she sends Crabbe to Paris to beg him to come back, certain he has left her for another woman. When Crabbe confronts Strickland, Strickland says that he does not care about his wife and children, he doesn't love them. Strickland lech for painting pictures. So Crabbe isn't able to convince him to return home. Strickland was unshakeable.

My pleasure reading

Year 1, Term 1: Ernest Hemingway "To Have And Have Not"

Year 1, Term 2: J. K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

Year 2, Term 3: J. K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

Year 2, Term 4: Kazuo Ishiguro "Never Let Me Go"

Year 3, Term 5: Daphne du Maurier "Rebecca"

Year 3, Term 6: Jane Austen ''Sense and Sensibility''