What Is Art? - Leo Tolstoy

“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” This essay, first published in English in 1898, challenges the notion that art’s value lies solely in beauty or technical skill. Tolstoy redefines art as a moral and emotional force, and argues that true art is the sincere communication of feeling from artist to audience, fostering positive emotions and societal unity, and rejecting the notion that art can be morally corrupting. He argues that the essence of