Nineteenth-Century Theories of Art

This unique and extraordinarily rich collection of writings offers a thematic approach to understanding the various theories of art that illumined the direction of nineteenth-century artists as diverse as Tommaso Minardi and Georges Seurat. It is significant that during the nineteenth century most artists felt compelled to found their artistic practice on a consciously established premise.

Joshua C. Taylor was Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago and Director of the National Museum of American Art from 1970 until his death in 1981. James L. Yarnall, formerly of the National Museum of American Art, prepared and edited the manuscript for publication.

Preface
Introduction

PART I. BEAUTY AND THE LANGUAGE OF FORM

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, Discourses on Art (I77I)

FRANCESCO MILIZIA, The Art of Seeing in the Fine Arts
ofDesign According to the Principles of Sulzer and
Mengs (I78I)

JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, The Jury of Art (I793)

WILLIAM GILPIN, Essay on Picturesque Beauty (I792)

ALEXANDER COZENS, A New Method of Assisting the
Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of
Landscape (1785)

EDME-FRANyOIS ANTOINE MIEL, The Dream ofOrestes
by Berthon (18I7-1818)

QUATREMERE DE QUINCY, On the End oflmitation in
the Fine Arts (1823)

J. A. D. INGRES, Commentaries on Art

PART II. ART AND THE COMMUNITY OF SOULS

WILHELM WACKENRODER, Outpourings from the
Heart of an Art-Loving Monk (1797)

WILLIAM BLAKE, A Descriptive Catalogue of
Pictures (1809)
Marginalia to Reynolds's Discourses
(ca. I8o8)

FRANCOIS RENE, VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND, The
Beauties of Christianity (1802)

FRIEDRICH OVERBECK, Diaries and Letters (18II, I8I4)

ADOLPHE THIERS, On Naivete in the Arts (I822)

TOMMASO MINARDI, On the Essential Quality ofltalian
Painting from Its Renaissance to the Period of Its
Perfection (I834)

A.F. RIO, The Poetry of Christian Art (I836)

ETIENNE-JEAN DELECLUZE, "The Beards" of I800 and
"The Beards" ofToday (I835)

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE, What Is Romanticism? (I846)

EUGENE DELACROIX, journals (I824-I847)

PART III. TRUTH TO NATURE AND THE NATURE OF TRUTH

PIERRE-HENRI DE VALENCIENNES, Advice to a Student
on Painting, Particularly on Landscape (I800)

PHILIPP OTTO RUNGE, Letter to Daniel Runge (I802)

CARL G. CARUS, Nine Letters on Landscape Painting
(I83I)

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Essays (I8J6-I84I)

JOHN RUSKIN, Preface to the Second Edition of
Modern Painters (I844)

JOHN CONSTABLE, Letters and Notes on Painting
(I802- I836)

CAMILLE COROT, Letters and Reflections on Painting

BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON and WILLIAM HAZLITT,
Articles from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (I8I6)

THEOPHILE THORE, To Theodore Rousseau (I844)

CHAMPFLEURY, Courbet: The Burial at Omans (I86I)

JEAN-FRANCOIS MILLET, Selected Writings
(I858-I863)

GUSTAVE COURBET, Selected Writings (I855-I870)

PART IV. ART AND SOCIETY

THEOPHILE THORE, New Tendencies in Art (I857)

HIPPOLYTE TAINE, The Philosophy of Art (I865)

PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON, Concerning the Principle
of Art and Its Social Purpose (I857)

WILLIAM MORRIS, The Art of the People (I882)

PART V. AN ART OF PURE VISION

EMILE ZOLA, Edouard Manet (I867)
Art at the Moment (I866)

ADRIANO CECIONI, Telemaco Signorini (I884)
Vincenzo Cabianca (ca. I884)

EMILE BLEMONT, The Impressionists (I876)

GEORGES RIVIERE, The Exhibition of the
Impressionists (I877)

MICHEL-EUGENE CHEVREUL, The Principles of
Harmony and Contrast of Colours, and Their
Applications to the Arts (I839)

CHARLES BLANC, The Grammar of Painting and
Engraving (1869)

FELIX FENEON, The Impressionists in I886
Neoimpressionism (1887)

PART VI. ART AS CREATION

VITTORIO IMBRIANI, The Fifth Promotrice Exhibition,
Letters IV and V (I868)

JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER, Mr. Whistler's "Ten
O'Clock" (1885)

CONRAD FIEDLER, Onjudging Works of Visual
Art (1876)

CHARLES HENRY, The Chromatic Circle (1888)
GEORGES SEURAT, Letter to Maurice Beaubourg (1890)
GUSTAVE KAHN, Seurat (1891)

List of Illustrations and Credits

Index