Great Pictures, As Seen and Described by Famous Writers

Of modern painters I have only included Turner and Rossetti.

and upon this point nearly every essayist and critic represented in these pages dwells.

My object has been not to make a selection of the greatest pictures in the world, although many that have that reputation will be found here, but rather to bring together those that have produced a powerful impression on great minds.

Consequently, when the reader is disturbed at the omission of some world-famous painting, I beg him to remember my plan and blame the great writers instead of me for neglecting his favourite.

My task has not been a light one. A few words of rapturous admiration are constantly to be met with in the pages of art-lovers, but a sympathetic study of a single work is rarely found. General comment of a given artist's work is also plentiful, while discriminating praise of individual canvases is scanty. The literary selection has, therefore, involved a great deal of research.

Great writers and literary tourists have occasionally been inspired to record the impressions of their saunterings among galleries and museums.

The most interesting of these, not necessarily professional, I have tried to bring together in the following pages.