Modern Painters, Volume 2

John Ruskin1819–1900

8 hr 3 min · 33 chapters
Narrated in full
Text on screen as you listen

2 chapters freeNo account needed.

Listen free

Opens “Of Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Impressions of Sense” in the player · no sign-up needed

Ruskin argues that recent painters emerging from the tradition of the picturesque are superior in the art of landscape to the old masters.

Inside the book

33 chapters · 8 hr 3 min

Free nowno account · 2 chapters
—Introduction2 min
3Of Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Impressions of Sense2 min
Premium31 chapters · every book, 7 days free
4Of False Opinions held concerning Beauty1 min
4Chapter 5, part 12 min
6Of Unity, or the Type of the Divine Comprehensiveness5 min
12Of Vital Beauty:--First, as Relative1 min
13Of Vital Beauty:--Secondly, as Generic2 min
14Of Vital Beauty:--Thirdly, in Man4 min
15General Conclusions respecting the Theoretic Faculty2 min
2Of Imagination Associative2 min
3Of Imagination Penetrative3 min
4Of Imagination Contemplative2 min
5Of the Superhuman Ideal3 min
1Of the Rank and Relations of the Theoretic Faculty17 min
2Of the Theoretic Faculty as Concerned with Pleasures...14 min
3Of Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Impressions of Sense23 min
4Of False Opinions Held Concerning Beauty17 min
5Of Typical Beauty:—First, of Infinity, or the Type O...25 min
6Of Unity, or the Type of the Divine Comprehensiveness28 min
7Of Repose, or the Type of Divine Permanence11 min
8Of Symmetry, or the Type of Divine Justice5 min
9Of Purity, or the Type of Divine Energy10 min
10Of Moderation, or the Type of Government by Law9 min
11General Inferences Respecting Typical Beauty5 min
12Of Vital Beauty25 min
13Of Vital Beauty.—Secondly as Generic21 min
14Of Vital Beauty.—Thirdly, in Man47 min
15General Conclusions Respecting the Theoretic Faculty18 min
1Of the Three Forms of Imagination9 min
2Of Imagination Associative35 min
3Of Imagination Penetrative55 min
4Of Imagination Contemplative40 min
5Of the Superhuman Ideal39 min

How to listen

1
2 chapters — free, now
Opens in the player. No account, no card.
2
Free account: pick one classic
A free account keeps one of five classics in full and saves your place.
3
All 33 chapters · $4.99/mo
Every book, offline in the apps. 7 days free, or $49 a year.

Create a free account or start a 7-day free trial

About this book

Modern Painters (1843–1860) is a five-volume work of art criticism by the Victorian art critic John Ruskin, begun when he was 24 years old and based on material collected in Switzerland in 1842.

The book was primarily written as a defence of the later work of J. M. W. Turner; the various other contemporary artists discussed get little praise, and many of the old masters are harshly criticised. Ruskin used the book to argue that art should devote itself to the accurate documentation of nature. In Ruskin's view, Turner had developed from early detailed documentation of nature to a later more profound insight into natural forces and atmospheric effects. In this way, Modern Painters reflects "Landscape and Portrait-Painting" (1829) in The Yankee by American art critic John Neal by distinguishing between "things seen by the artist" and "things as they are".

First published: 1860
Narration: Full, unabridged
Text: On screen as you listen

The opening

Of Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Impressions of Sense

Sec. 1. By what test is the health of the perceptive faculty to be determined? 19 Sec. 2. And in what sense may the terms Right and Wrong be attached to its conclusions? 20 Sec. 3. What power we have over impressions of sense. 21 Sec. 4. Depends on acuteness of attention. 21 Sec. 5. Ultimate conclusions universal. 22 Sec. 6. What duty is attached to this power over impressions of sense. 22 Sec. 7. How rewarded. 23 Sec. 8. Especially with respect to ideas of beauty. 23 Sec. 9. Errors induced by the power of habit. 24 Sec. 10. The necessity of submission in early stages of judgment. 24 Sec. 11. The large scope of matured judgment. 25 Sec. 12. How distinguishable from false taste. 25 Sec. 13. The danger of a spirit of choice. 26 Sec. 14. And criminality. 27 Sec. 15. How certain conclusions respecting beauty are by reason demonstrable. 27 Sec. 16. With what liabilities to error. 28 Sec. 17. The term "beauty" how limitable in the outset. Divided into typical and vital. 28

Listen free

About the author

John Ruskin

1819 London – 1900 Coniston · English writer and art critic

John Ruskin was an English polymath – a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, political economy, education, museology, geology, botany, ornithology, literature, history, and myth.