Reflecting Ruskin's belief that art is not an isolated pursuit, but one intimately connected with all aspects of human life, Lectures on Art explores the relation of art to religion, morals, and practicality as well as the significance of line, light, and color.

"The following lectures were the most important piece of my literary work done with unabated power, best motive, and happiest concurrence of circumstance.

They were written and delivered while my mother yet lived, and had vividest sympathy in all I was attempting;-while also my friends put unbroken trust in me, and the course of study I had followed seemed to fit me for the acceptance of noble tasks and graver responsibilities than those only of a curious traveler, or casual teacher.

Men of the present world may smile at the sanguine utterances of the first four lectures: but it has not been wholly my own fault that they have remained unfulfilled; nor do I retract one word of hope for the success of other masters, nor a single promise made to the sincerity of the student's labor, on the lines here indicated."