What Is Art?
Tolstoy rejects definitions of art founded on beauty or pleasure and defines it as the transmission of lived feeling, which infects others and unites them. He judges art by its sincerity and by the religious perception of its age, and condemns much fashionable upper-class art, including most of his own fiction, as counterfeit.
Understanding the text
After some fifteen years of work, the treatise appeared in censored form in a Moscow journal in 1897 and 1898; Aylmer Maude’s English translation of 1898, made from the manuscript, gave the first uncensored text. Its examples range from Beethoven and Wagner to the French decadent poets.
Key points
- 01
Infection
Art begins when someone deliberately hands on a feeling through lines, colours, sounds, movements or words, so that others experience it in turn.
- 02
Sincerity
Infectiousness depends on the individuality, clarity and above all sincerity of the feeling, which counterfeit art imitates through borrowing and striking effects.
- 03
Brotherly union
The highest art conveys feelings of brotherhood among all people, or simple feelings open to everyone, rather than the pleasures of a single class.
Explore the ideas in depth
Sincere art and its counterfeits
Test Tolstoy’s definition of art as the transmission of lived feeling against the works you value most.
Situating the text
After some fifteen years of work, the treatise appeared in censored form in a Moscow journal in 1897 and 1898; Aylmer Maude’s English translation of 1898, made from the manuscript, gave the first uncensored text. Its examples range from Beethoven and Wagner to the French decadent poets. Tolstoy rejects definitions of art founded on beauty or pleasure and defines it as the transmission of lived feeling, which infects others and unites them. He judges art by its sincerity and by the religious perception of its age, and condemns much fashionable upper-class art, including most of his own fiction, as counterfeit.
Following the arguments
Infection : Art begins when someone deliberately hands on a feeling through lines, colours, sounds, movements or words, so that others experience it in turn. Sincerity : Infectiousness depends on the individuality, clarity and above all sincerity of the feeling, which counterfeit art imitates through borrowing and striking effects. Brotherly union : The highest art conveys feelings of brotherhood among all people, or simple feelings open to everyone, rather than the pleasures of a single class.
Continuing the reading
Read chapter 5 for the definition and chapter 15 for the marks of genuine art, then test them on a work you love that he would reject. After some fifteen years of work, the treatise appeared in censored form in a Moscow journal in 1897 and 1898; Aylmer Maude’s English translation of 1898, made from the manuscript, gave the first uncensored text. Its examples range from Beethoven and Wagner to the French decadent poets.
Questions to carry into your reading
- Can a work be sincere and infectious and yet transmit a harmful feeling?
- Which of your favourite works would Tolstoy call counterfeit, and on what grounds?
Tolstoy judges art less by its beauty than by the sincerity and worth of the feelings it shares.
How to read it
Read chapter 5 for the definition and chapter 15 for the marks of genuine art, then test them on a work you love that he would reject.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗