Art is the best part of cultural live of Great Britain and Russia, isn’t it?

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                                         INTRODUСTION

     Culture - the customs beliefs, art, music and the other products of human thought made by a particular group of people at a particular time . This definition gives the Longman Dictionary of English language and culture. Culture results in activity of a man, buildings, art, and law, moral. It is competence, ability, intellect, world outlook (philosophy), intercourse of people, traditions and customs.

   Cultural life of Great Britain and Russia is rather rich, different and has deep historical roots. It passed several main stages in its development.

    In 988 Russia became a powerful and progressive Christian state. Alongside with Christianity it adopted the Byzantium culture and artistic style developed through centuries.

   In the 18th century tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was famous for his hatred towards the popular Russian culture. Peter the Great reforms gave rise to a new stage of cultural development in Russia. It concerns with the very essence of artistic perception of the world and a human being.

     The Saxon King Alfred encouraged the arts and culture. The chief debt owed to him by English literature is for his translations and commentaries on Latin works. Art, culture and literature flourished during the Elizabethan age, during the reign of Elizabeth I; it was the period of English domination of the oceans. It was at this time that William Shakespeare lived.

    It’s difficult to embrace the diversity of cultural development of countries, with rich history so we will stop our attention on Art – the best part of cultural heritage - fine art, music and theatre.

    Art is the creation and expression of everything that is beautiful. It gives pleasure to mind through senses and feelings. It appeals to the heart and mind of man. The lust for beauty and spiritual perfection is in all of us. We learn a lot by seeing the world through other people’s eyes. Lust for art is the beginning of creativity and creativity is something we need in any job. The person who can appreciate art is the creator himself.

    Art is the source of information and delight. It is a way of escape from boredom, sorrow, troubles and grief. Art makes a person better. It helps us understand that the world is full of interesting things.

   Therefore it would be interesting to highlight the following issues:

• some facts from the history of Russian and Britain painting;
• the first Russian аnd Britain Art Galleries;
• music and musicians;
• the national musical instruments of the Russian and Scots;
• the Theatre Festivals in Britain and Russia;                                   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                               
 

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  A few from history of Russia painting of the 17-19 centuries

     In the history of Russian fine arts one can distinguish two periods. Peter the Great reforms marked the border between them. The difference is extremely deep and concerns the very essence of artistic perception of the world and a human being.

    In Old Russia painting appeared and developed in a close connection with icon worshiping, the basis of which is the doctrine of Incarnation.

    Since the middle of the 16th century icon painting undergoes the influence of Western fine arts.

   In the second half of the 17th century icons of so-called 'fryag painting' appear. They included the elements of Western European painting: oil colors and great verisimilitude in depicting people and nature. The most prominent representative of the trend is Simon Ushakov (the 17th century). The first attempts of creating a temporal portrait can also be referred to that time.

    In the 18th century and at the beginning if the 19th century fine arts in Russia, following cultural needs of the society, experiences all the main stages of Western art: Baroque, Classicism, and Romanticism. Foreign painters and sculptors invited to Russia play an important role but very talented home masters appear in the time of Elisabeth I.

    In the middle of the 18th century academic manner becomes a leading trend in painting. It is characterized by strict manner of painting, by following certain rules in composition, by some conditional character of coloring, by making use of the plots from the Bible, from ancient history and mythology. However, the highest achievement of the epoch is not a historical painting but a portrait (I.Argunov, A.Antropov, F.Rokotov, D.Levitskiy, V.Borovikovskiy, O. Kiprenskiy).

    The flourishing of an academic school refers to the first half of the 19th century. K.Bryullov's canvas are characterized by the combination of academic Classicism with Romanticism, by novelty of plots, by the theatrical effect of plastic and lighting, by complex composition and by brilliant virtuosity of a painter's brush. 

    A.Ivanov added some character of sacrificial devotion to the idea and he managed to overcome lots of patterns referring to academic technique. 

     At that time P.Fedotov followed his own way. He was considered to be a brilliant dilettante, a subtle observes and a witty satirist, who anticipated further trends of Russian genre-painting.

    Social aspiration of 1860-1870s awakes the painters' interest in the themes connected with people's life. In 1872 in contrast to the Academy of Arts the Association of travelling art exhibition was founded (I.Kramskoy, G.Myasoedov,K.Savitskiy, I.Pryanishnikov, V.Makovskiy, I.Yaroshenko, V.Perov, etc).

    The appeal to national themes resulted in unprecedented flourishing of historical and battle painting. V.Surikov, I.Repin, N.Ghe, V.Vasnetsov,V.Vereschagin, F.Rubo created real masterpieces in those genres.

     The first Russian Art Galleries were opened during those years; the works of Russian painters were exhibited regularly in international exhibitions and foreign art salon.

     Having achieved independence in their creative activity since the end of the 19th century Russian painting follows the same European course of fine arts. Landscape painting is ousting genre painting. Striving for depicting air and light, peculiar to Impressionism, can also be found in the works of F.Vasilyev, I.Levitan, V.Serov, K.Korovin, and A.Arhipov.                                                                  

     Symbolism, Neo-classicism and Modern influenced greatly A.Vrubel, the painters from 'World of Arts' (A.Benois, L.Bakst, E.Lansere) and the painters from 'A Blue Rose' (S.Sideikin,N.Krymov, V.Borisov-Musatov).

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     The 1910s are marked by the appearance of Russian vanguard, as an aspiration to rebuild the very essence of art up to the denial of art itself. A number of artists and creative associations set new schools and new trends, which influenced radically the development of world's fine arts - Supermatism (K.Malevich), 'the style of improvisation' and abstract art (V.Kandinskiy).

  

                          English Painting of the 17^{th -} 18^th centuries

     English painting during the 17^th century was dominated by foreign portraitists. Sir Peter Lely, a portraitist, began who his activity in England in 1641. His portraits of the members of the court of Charles II set the pattern for English portraiture of the second half of the 17^th century. British patrons in the 18^th century collected paintings on religious or mythical theme by foreign artists, but at home they collected portraits and landscapes.

    The Protestant church did little to encourage painting. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 was followed by a brief flowering of decorative painting.

    William Hogarth was greatly influenced by the continental style. Early in his career he succeeded in breaking away from the strait jacket of portraiture, and in his moralizing paintings he showed the life of his contemporaries. He invented a new form of secular narrative painting. His paintings were often tragicomedies. Hogarth’s series were always engraved for a large public. Despite Hogarth’s borrowings from old masters continental, he remained English.

    When Reynolds, Sir Joshua, a British painter who is known for his portraits, returned from Italy in 1752, he possessed a more profound acquaintance with the old masters than any of his contemporaries. His colouring can be compared with Rembrandt and Rubens, and his poses are indebted to the sculpture of Michelangelo. He was the 1^st president of the Royal Academy.

    Thomas Gainsborough was in every way the antithesis to Reynolds. His tastes in portraiture lay in the delicate brushwork and ephemeral qualities of the Rococo. He preferred landscape painting to portraiture, and the strong Dutch influence in his earliest works later gave way to spontaneous landscapes composed from models.

     To Sum up, Western European painting had a great influence on the painting of Russia and Great Britain.

    in the 18th century and at the beginning if the 19^th century fine arts in Russia went through all the main stages of Western art.  Foreign painters and sculptors invited to Russia played an important role but very talented home masters appeared at that time. During the 19^th century Russian painting achieved independence in their creative activity. As for, English painting during the 17^th century it was dominated by foreign portraitists. Despite British painters’ borrowings from old continental masters, they remained English. 

       

                                        The first Russian Galleries 

    The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the most famous and well-known picture galleries in our country and all over the world. This gallery is named after its founder Peter Tretyakov. He began to collect Russian paintings in 1856. He wanted these paintings to be seen by people.

    This gallery and collections of paintings were nationalized in 1918.

   The gallery has many halls. One of them is devoted to the Great Russian painters of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. We can see pictures by such painters as Serov, Repin, Ivanov, Levitan and others.

    The first works in Tretyakov’s collection were the paintings of the ‘Peredvizhniki’. The First pictures the collector bought were the paintings ‘Morning in a Pine Wood’ by Shishkin and

‘Ivan Tsarevich on the Grey Wolf’ by Vasnetsov. This gallery has many new exhibits now. You can see works of the painters of the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century there.

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     St. Petersburg is a city of culture. There are famous museums including the State Russian Museum and the Hermitage. In 1764 the Hermitage was founded by Catherine II the Great as a court museum. The Hermitage has rich collections of western European painting, Russian and Easten art.

    It’s interesting, that the Hermitage has the works Thomas Gainsborough “Women in the blow” and Joshua Reynolds “Amours end Venus”.

                                               

                                          Art Galleries in London

      The National Gallery has been in this building since 1838 which was built as the National Gallery to house the collection of Old Masters Paintings offered to the nation by an English Private collector, Sir George Beamount.

      Today the National Gallery of Art exhibit works of all the European schools of painting, which existed between the 13th and 19th centuries. The most famous works among them are ‘Venus and Cupid’ by Diego Velazquez, ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ by Nicolas Poussin, ‘A Woman Bathing’ by Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt, ‘Lord Heathfield’ by Joshua Reynolds, ‘Mrs Siddons’ by Thomas Gainsborough and many others.

      In 1897 the Tate Gallery was opened to house more modern British paintings. Most of the National Gallery collections of British paintings were transferred to the Tate, and only a small collection of a few masterpieces is now exhibited at Trafalgar Square.

      Thus, the Tate Gallery exhibits a number of interesting collections of British and foreign modern painting and also modern sculpture.

      The collection of Turner’s paintings at the Tate includes about 300 oils and 19,000 watercolours and drawings. He was the most traditional artist of his time as well as the most original: traditional in his devotion to the Old Masters and original in his creation of new styles. It is sometimes said that he prepared the way for the Impressionists.

      The modern collection includes the paintings of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Salvador Dali, Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton, the chief pioneers of pop art in Great Britain. Henry Moore is a

famous British sculptor whose works are exhibited at the Tate too. One of the sculptor's masterpieces - the ‘Reclining Figure’ - is at fees Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris.

      So, the most famous Galleries of Russia and Britain began their life with the private collections of the rich people

All in all, the Tretyakov Gallery is one of the most famous and well-known picture galleries in our country and all over the world.   Its Founder,  Peter Tretyakov wanted these paintings to be seen by people.                                   

     The National Gallery started its life with 38 paintings offered by Sir G. Beaumont. Then and now the paintings of famous Art galleries impress everyone who visits them.

                              

                                   Music and musicians

     The people living in the Britain are very fond of music, and it is quite natural that concerts of the leading symphony orchestras, numerous folk groups and pop music are very popular.

      The Promenade concerts are probably the most famous. They were first held in 1840 in the Queen's Hall, and later were directed by Sir Henry Wood and they are still held today in the

      Royal Albert Hall. They take place every night for about three months in the summer, and the programmes include new and contemporary works, as well as classics. Among them are

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symphonies and other pieces of music composed by Benjamin Britten, the famous English musician.

      Folk music is still very much alive. There are many folk groups. Their harmony of singing and good humour win them friends everywhere.

      Rock and pop music is extremely popular, especially among younger people. In the 60s and 70s groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd became very popular and successful.

      The Beatles, with their new and exciting style of singing, their wonderful sense of humour became the most successful pop group the world has ever known. Many of the famous songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney are still popular. Some of the more recent rock groups are Eurhythmics, Dire Straits, and Black Sabbath.

    British groups often set new trends in music. New staff and styles continue to appear. One of the most popular contemporary musicians and composers is Andrew Lloyd Webber. The musicals and rock operas by A. L. Webber have been a great success both in Britain and overseas.