Penelope Fitzgerald at the Wikipedia: click here
Presentation, by Àngels Gallardo
Biography
She was the daughter of a publisher and her uncle was a theologian, a writer and a Bible scholar.
In her family, there were men of the Bible with a good academic education, so that it impacted her dedication to her writing. She began to write later in life, and she published her first book in 1975.
She was married to an Irish soldier and they had three children.
She worked in a dramatic art school until she was seventy years old.
A library and a boat house inspired her to write two of her novels.
Another thing was that she used to write early in the morning or very late at night.
The Red-Haired Girl
The story
explains the life of five people who had studied in the atelier of Vincent
Bonvin.
In 1882 they organized a party to go to Brittany because they wanted somewhere
cheap and characteristic types, natural, busy with occupations and in plein
air.
They were poor and they brought only the necessary luggage.
When they arrived there, they decided to begin with Sant-Briac-sur-Mer because
somebody had recommended it to them.
After that, they went to Palourde on the coast near Cancale.
They didn't wanted to spend time as tourists, they only wanted to paint because
they were artists.
They made reservations in the Hôtel du Port and their rooms and food were very
simple.
In the kitchen of the hotel was working a red haired girl named Annik. She
worked all day but she had a short time every day.
One of them, named Hackett, thought that this girl could be his model.
He asked her if she could be his model an hour a day and only when he finished
he would pay her.
He asked her to borrow a red shawl because he wanted her to wear it while he
was painting her.
During the next three days Annik stood with her crochet on the back steps of
the hotel.
He looked for the contrast between the copper coloured hair and the scarlet
shawl, and he accepted that she never smiled.
One of the artists received a telegram from Paris; it said that their professor
Bonvin will come on a day to the hotel because he would be delighted to see his
pupils in Palourde, and he wanted to look at their portfolios, but them were
bad for him and he went away.
At the end of this story, Annik disappeared because she had been dismissed.
QUESTIONS
What
can you tell us about art and artists at the end of the 19th century?
What
information can you give us about Brittany?
Why
did this group of artists decide to go to Brittany?
Describe
Palourde.
Talk
about the main characters:
Hackett
Annik
appearance (What did she
look like?)
personality (What was
she like?)
Bonvin (and his relationship with
Palourde: “Palourde was indifferent to artists, but Bonvin had imposed himself
as a professor.”)
What
was Hackett’s saying about catching a cough and what does it mean?
How
did the group of artists accommodate (room, meals) themselves in Palourde?
Describe
the Hôtel du Port.
What
do Palourde people usually do after lunch?
What
happened with the shawl for Annik?
Tell
us about Annik’s portrait / painting.
“Oh,
everybody wants the same things. The only difference is what they will do to
get them.” What do you think about this?
“Once
a teacher, always a teacher.” What’s your opinion?
Why,
according to Bonvin, are Hackett’s paintings bad?
“It’s
only in the studio that you can bring out the heart of the subject...” Do you
agree?
When
you paint, what do you want to paint: what you see, or the soul of what you
see?
Faces
are soul’s mirrors?
Who
was Chateaubriand?
“Boredom
and the withering sense of insignificance can bring one as low as grief.” Is
this true?
In
the end, what do you think Hackett is going to miss?
Is
he going to become an artist? Why?
VOCABULARY