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Exploiting Google Arts and Culture pictures

I came across the amazing Google Arts and Culture a few years ago when it was first christened Google Art Project. It's an easy and rather awesome way to look at famous artworks from around the world.

https://artsandculture.google.com/partner

It struck me that language teachers could make use of this resource to generate discussion at advanced level. The best pictures for this are ones which do not rely on simple description, but where students can let their imaginations run riot with their own invented back-stories.

How about this work by Van Gogh (Agostina Segatori dans le Café du Tambourin):


You could get the ball rolling with questions like:

What's her name? How old is she? Where is she? What's she wearing? Why is she there? Why is she alone?
What's she drinking? Does she usually drink this?
Is she waiting for someone? Who? How is she feeling?
What's happened? What's going to happen? etc etc

The students will go where they want with this. They could then write something up based on their own ideas. Give the students free rein and just nudge them along if they are short of imaginative ideas.

Here's another one - it's L'après-midi des Enfants à Wargemont by Renoir:


Possible questions:

Who are they? Where are they What is the girl reading? Is the woman their mother? If so, is she married? To whom? What are their interests? What is the woman's background? Is there a father? Where is he? Do the girls go to school? Do they have any brothers?

These pictures are also a way in to French art, of course, so there is then room for further reading or research.

I'm sure you could find other, better pictures.

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