Essence of Art – Excerpts from “Essays, First Series” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (vegetarian), Part 1 of 2

We now present excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay on how art reflects the soul’s progression and our interconnectedness with nature, revealing humanity’s journey toward their ultimate happiness and fulfillment.

“[…] Because the soul is progressive, it never quite repeats itself, but in every act attempts the production of a new and fairer whole. This appears in works both of the useful and the fine arts, if we employ the popular distinction of works according to their aim either at use or beauty. Thus, in our fine arts, not imitation but creation is the aim.

In landscapes the painter should give the suggestion of a fairer creation than we know. The details, the prose of nature he should omit and give us only the spirit and splendor. He should know that the landscape has beauty for his eye because it expresses a thought which is to him good; and this because the same power which sees through his eyes is seen in that spectacle; and he will come to value the expression of nature and not nature itself, and so exalt in his copy the features that please him. […]

What is that abridgment and selection we observe in all spiritual activity, but itself the creative impulse? for it is the inlet of that higher illumination which teaches to convey a larger sense by simpler symbols.”

“But the artist must employ the symbols in use in his day and nation to convey his enlarged sense to his fellowmen. Thus, the new in art is always formed out of the old. The Genius of the Hour sets his ineffaceable seal on the work and gives it an inexpressible charm for the imagination. As far as the spiritual character of the period overpowers the artist and finds expression in his work, so far it will retain a certain grandeur, and will represent to future beholders the Unknown, the Inevitable, the Divine. […]”