On 20 Feb 1885, James McNeill Whistler gave his “10 O’Clock” lecture, Piccadilly, London, attacking social use of art. Part of a longer battle that included Whistler’s libel suit against John Ruskin in 1878; Whistler did not name Ruskin but alluded to a Philistine “Sage” who misled the public on art. Image: Self-Portrait of James McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter, c. 1872 (Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Institute of Arts). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Amy Woodson-Boulton, “The City Art Museum Movement and the Social Role of Art”

Nicholas Frankel, “On the Whistler-Ruskin Trial, 1878″