“A picture that expresses something invisible by something visible.” — Sydney Dobell | V2Melody

“A picture that expresses something invisible by something visible.”

Offering a compact description of art that gives visible form to unseen meaning · Letter from Odsey House, 2 October 1857

Art
Beauty

About Sydney Dobell

Sydney Dobell

5 April 1824–22 August 1874

Sydney Thompson Dobell was born on 5 April 1824 at Cranbrook in Kent, into a family whose circumstances placed him close to the commercial and dissenting middle-class culture of provincial England rather than to the aristocratic literary world. His father, Thomas Dobell, was a wine merchant, and the business of…

More by Sydney Dobell

Poems by Sydney Dobell

More remarks by Sydney Dobell

“All co-operative movements of many things that are obliged to conform to one time-beater, like the heart, must be rhythmic in order to avoid collision.”

Connecting rhythm with the ordered co-operation found in living systems · Unpublished notes, Poetry and Art

“The thing dearest to the people is usually the least valuable element in what they value.”

Questioning whether popularity reliably identifies what is most valuable in art · Letter to M., May 1856

“It is not enough, under given circumstances, to show that a benefit takes place. You require to show that it is the greatest possible under them.”

Demanding comparison with the best attainable good rather than mere improvement · Unpublished notes, Search for the Ideal

Hope
Truth