Artist and Public, and Other Essays on Art Subjects

The relationship between artists and their audiences gives Kenyon Cox's essays their connecting theme. He argues that changes following the French Revolution widened the distance between the maker of art and the people expected to appreciate it. From patronage and workshop traditions to industrial production, his opening essay considers the social conditions in which painting and sculpture develop. The collection also includes studies of Millet, Raphael and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, alongside discussions of progress, painting methods and the American school.

Cox moves from broad arguments to close attention to individual works. His discussion of Raphael examines how figures, corners, lines and spaces work together in compositions such as the Vatican's Poetry and School of Athens. Readers interested in art criticism can follow his reasoning about balance and design while considering his belief that art has a social function. The essays offer a clearly stated perspective on how artworks communicate and how a public learns to value them.