group of Americans who patronize the free public library. I believe I know something about their way of looking at the subject of art; and that I know, consequently, how art is regarded by about 99 per cent, of the fairly well-to-do and moderately rich in this country. My interest in the subject, enhanced by the opportunities I have mentioned, has naturally led me to take note of art in the American home, and of the light it throws on the art knowledge and esthetic sensitiveness of the American people. My observations in this direction have confirmed me in the conclusions, herein noted, to which my work in the library had led me.
Most discussions of esthetics ignore certain common, every-day feelings which seem to be important factors in the appeal which works of art make on our attention. I have here tried to describe the nature and origin of some of these feelings, and to show that they are among the most universal and the simplest elements of esthetic emotion. I call them extra-artistic elements, because by the professional artist they are not considered to lie within the artistic field.
The physiological factors in esthetics are, in a certain sense, more fundamental than the familiar feelings I discuss in this essay. They go to the very bottom of the pleasurable sensations which the sight of certain objects gives us. But we do not yet understand them. A spot of color probably gives pleasure—under proper conditions—even to the most uncultivated observer. Savages and even some of the lower animals have this much of esthetic feeling. Meaningless arrangements of several colors probably give greater pleasure to some, even of the entirely untrained, than does the single spot of one color. Flat design in black and white, quite without suggestion of any kind, arouses agreeable sensations in some, but probably only in a few of those who have never given thought to the subject. That is, pictures, considered simply as fiat, colored designs with no regard whatever to what they portray, may produce an agreeable physiological effect on some of those who see them. This direct physiological effect is, as I have said, little understood. It sometimes, perhaps commonly, forms a part of the group of pleasurable feelings which picture-gazing evokes. It is fundamental to be sure; but with nearly all observers it is of slight importance in comparison with the mass of agreeable sensations whose nature and genesis I have outlined below.
Most of us first note a picture which we know is popularly admitted to be a work of art with a pleasure which comes of being in the fashion. It is the custom to enjoy it. We like to know and feel that we are following the custom. We find it easy to say, as all others do, that it is pretty and attractive: and so saying we get the pleasure of conformity; of being in the mode. This kind of picture-enjoyment lies upon the surface, is easy to acquire and comes naturally to all of
