ABSTRACT
This chapter explores judgment in art in Britain in the nineteenth century. Firstly, it considers the weakly defined relationship between judgment in art and ‘taste’, and then presents the sites for art judgment, such as the controversial Royal Academy, and specialist or popular locations for judgment in newspapers and periodicals. The figure of the Victorian art critic pronouncing judgment, most famously John Ruskin, is studied. Problems in judging art according to contemporaries, from the role of the public to the professional artist’s relative status as judge, are noted. Female critics such as Anna Jameson are considered in relation to the gendered discourse on aesthetic judgment.
