primary sources
In Their Own Words: A Chronological Archive
1769: Sir Joshua Reynolds – DISCOURSE I
Delivered at the Opening of the Royal Academy, January 2, 1769.
THE ADVANTAGES PROCEEDING FROM THE INSTITUTION OF A ROYAL ACADEMY.—HINTS OFFERED TO THE CONSIDERATION...
1846: John Ruskin on the Sublime in Art
"It is not while we shrink, but while we defy, that we receive or convey the highest conceptions of the fate. There is no sublimity in the agony of terror. "
1855: Gustave Courbet’s Realist Manifesto
Courbet's "Realist Manifesto" accompanied his controversial, bold, and ultimately financially devastating "Exposition Courbet" — better known today as the "Pavilion of Realism." The exhibition...
1861: Realist Manifesto – An Open Letter
A group of artists approached Courbet to head up a new studio — essentially to be their teacher. Courbet's response? A firm and characteristically...
1874: Louis Leroy’s “The Exhibition of the Impressionists”
Louis Leroy's 1874 review of the first Impressionist exhibition is the most famous — and most consequential — slam in art criticism history...