English Every Day: Vincent Van Gogh

Your English Programme #19 - Vincent Van Gogh (Listening B2-C1)

Do you know who these paintings are by?

Think Before You Listen

On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh shot himself and died two days later at the age of 37.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 to 29 July 1890) was a Dutch painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings. They include landscapes, still life paintings, portraits and self-portraits. His suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty.¹

Watch and Listen

According to the narrator, was Van Gogh successful and famous during his lifetime?

Let's Practice

You've probably heard the expression "input before output". That means without any input (information that enters a system), there won't be any/much output (production; something that can be produced). This is also true about language learning, whether you are a child learning your mother tongue or an adult learning a second/foreign language. Much of the language we learn to use every day comes to us through listening and reading.

In this activity (below), we have gapped the parts of the video transcript that can be learned and used in speaking and/or writing. As you do the activity (listen more than once if you need to), pay attention to how the expressions are formed (e.g. adjective+noun collocation, noun+of+noun, etc).

mouse over the underlined words to see their meaning

Most people know Vincent Van Gogh cut his ear off. But most may NOT know he shot himself at just age 37. Thirty-seven _______ of ________ and wanderlust, with a reputation for failure. He died 2 days later, but left behind some of the most influential ________  ________ of his generation. But he also left behind a stunning ________  _________ of his wanderings. As a teenager, Van Gogh worked at this art dealership in the Hague, and he drew the beauty around him. He was transferred to the Paris branch in 1875, but he _____  _______. Officially, it was for disappearing over Christmas for an unannounced vacation. He taught at this boys’ school in Ramsgate, England in 1876, but he _______ to _________ his religious fervor and teach Sunday school. He wandered through the Netherlands and Belgium, for some years, ______ing from ______ to ______. He painted the miners in this Belgian town while pursuing a career as a preacher. It wasn’t until 1880, when he was 27 that he embraced being an artist, evidenced by numerous sketches and in letters to his brother. By 1886, in Paris, you can see his skills flourish, __________  ____ the impressionism and post-impressionism movements in France and its notable artists. He was the romanticized idea of a struggling, starving artist. But he _________  ___ befriend many artists of the time including Gauguin. You can see their influences on each other here. In 1888, Gauguin ________  _____ Van Gogh in the infamous Yellow House. It was during these tumultuous years, 1888 through 1890, that he made all those cool paintings you’ve likely seen already. But his _______ still wasn’t __________. He gave a portrait away to its subject during his last year in France. The subject used it to repair a chicken coop, then gave it away. He finally entered an asylum in Saint Rémy during May 1889, and continued to paint ____  ____________. He made his last move to Auvers-sur-Oise in May of 1890. Van Gogh’s life was short and painful, and he probably ________ of ________ as a failure. But he wasn’t. Though his life took a winding path, you can see him going straight towards what he did better than anybody else in the world could do.

(see the first comment for answers or turn on the video captions)

Over to You

Would you like to learn more about Van Gogh? Are you curious to know what a day was like in Vincent's life, what his many letters were about, and why he painted so many self-portraits?

The Van Gogh Museum's website has gathered together 125 questions and answers about Van Gogh, his life, and his artistic work. The museum is dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Also, this short extract from a Doctor Who episode (series 5, episode 10) shows the Doctor and Amy take Vincent to a Paris art gallery in the year 2010... A must watch!

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And this brings us to the end of another post in the Series: English Every Day on Engramme: Your Daily English Programme. Share this lesson with your fellow learners if you found it useful. Let us know in the comments below if you have any ideas, suggestions or requests.

You'd like to expand your 'art vocabulary'? See this link (pdf)

Download a pdf copy here if you'd like to use this content in your classroom.

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1 extract taken from Wikipedia, with minor changes. Read the full article HERE^↩