Ruskin and Wilde on Realism: Evolutionary Change in Idealist Aesthetics

Abstract

Extensive comparision of Ruskin’s and Wilde’s development of aesthetic theories based on the philosophical position of Idealism. Explains how photography negatively influenced Ruskin’s ideas about realism and pushed him toward a more idealistic position regarding the representation of form. Suggests that Wilde, influenced by Darwin and Herbert Spencer, rejected realism in favor of an idealism in art that reshaped a viewer or reader’s consciousness and aided social reform.