DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41193#0023
be permanently degraded into machines, that the
hand should rest the mind as well as the mind the
hand* And I say that this is the hind ofwork which
the world has lost, supplying its place with the
work which is the result ofthe division of labour*
That work, whatever else it can do, cannot pro«-
duce art, which must, as long as the present system
lasts, be entirelyconfined to such works as are the
work from beginning to end of one man: pictures,
independent sculpture, and the like* As to these,
on the one hand, they cannot fill the gap which the
loss of popular art has made, nor can they, espe/
dally the more imaginative of them, receive the
sympathy which shouldbe their due* I must speak
plainly and say that as things go it is impossible
for anyone who is not highly educated to under/-
stand the higher kind of pictures* Nay, I believe
most people receive very little impression indeed
from any pictures but those which represent the
scenes with which they are thoroughly familiar*
The aspect of this as regards people in general is
to my mind much more important than that which
has to do with the unlucky artist; but he also has
some claim upon our consideration; & I am sure
that this lack of the general sympathy of simple
people weighs very heavily on him, and makes
his work feverish and dreamy, or crabbed and
perverse*
No, be sure if the people is sick its leaders also
have need of healing* Art will not grow and flours
15
Lecture II*
Art and the
Beauty of
the Earth*
hand should rest the mind as well as the mind the
hand* And I say that this is the hind ofwork which
the world has lost, supplying its place with the
work which is the result ofthe division of labour*
That work, whatever else it can do, cannot pro«-
duce art, which must, as long as the present system
lasts, be entirelyconfined to such works as are the
work from beginning to end of one man: pictures,
independent sculpture, and the like* As to these,
on the one hand, they cannot fill the gap which the
loss of popular art has made, nor can they, espe/
dally the more imaginative of them, receive the
sympathy which shouldbe their due* I must speak
plainly and say that as things go it is impossible
for anyone who is not highly educated to under/-
stand the higher kind of pictures* Nay, I believe
most people receive very little impression indeed
from any pictures but those which represent the
scenes with which they are thoroughly familiar*
The aspect of this as regards people in general is
to my mind much more important than that which
has to do with the unlucky artist; but he also has
some claim upon our consideration; & I am sure
that this lack of the general sympathy of simple
people weighs very heavily on him, and makes
his work feverish and dreamy, or crabbed and
perverse*
No, be sure if the people is sick its leaders also
have need of healing* Art will not grow and flours
15
Lecture II*
Art and the
Beauty of
the Earth*