Table-Talk · Chapter
The Same Subject Continued explained
Hazlitt continues his defense of the artist's unique and profound connection to art, arguing that only those who have devoted their lives to the practice can fully appreciate its highest beauties.
What happens
Hazlitt continues his defense of the artist's unique and profound connection to art, arguing that only those who have devoted their lives to the practice can fully appreciate its highest beauties. He contrasts the artist's deep, enduring passion with the superficial interest of the amateur, using his own memories of the Louvre and a friend's print of Titian's Mistress as examples. He concludes that true taste and knowledge enhance, rather than diminish, the pleasure derived from art.
Themes in this chapter
Art and Nature
Hazlitt argues that deep knowledge of art, not just natural sensibility, is required to perceive the true beauty and harmony in works like those of Titian and Claude.
Intellectual Superiority and Its Disadvantages
Hazlitt contends that the artist's refined taste, while isolating them from common appreciation, is a source of higher and more lasting pleasure.
Criticism and Critical Practice
The chapter is a sustained critical argument about the nature of artistic appreciation, contrasting the amateur's view with the connoisseur's or artist's deeper understanding.
Characters to notice
- William Hazlitt
The author and narrator, reflecting on his own experiences as a student in the Louvre and defending the artist's perspective.
- Sir Joshua Reynolds
Referenced indirectly through the mention of Richardson's Essays, which Hazlitt cites in his argument.
- John Milton
Mentioned in a quote about the Louvre: 'if thou hast not seen the Louvre thou art damned!'—a paraphrase of Milton.
Key passages
“No one but the artist who has studied nature and contended with the difficulties of art, can be aware of the beauties, or intoxicated with a passion for painting.”
Only someone who has both studied nature and struggled with the technical challenges of art can truly understand its beauties and feel a deep passion for painting.
Hazlitt's core argument that artistic knowledge is essential for full appreciation.
“Where the treasure is, there the heart is also.”
A person's deepest affections are tied to what they value most.
Biblical allusion used to explain the artist's intense devotion to their craft.
“It is now seventeen years since I was studying in the Louvre... but long after I returned, and even still, I sometimes dream of being there again—of asking for the old pictures—and not finding them, or finding them changed or faded from what they were, I cry myself awake!”
Even seventeen years after studying in the Louvre, I still dream of returning, and I weep when I dream the pictures are gone or altered.
Personal anecdote illustrating the lasting emotional impact of the Louvre on an artist.