Leo Tolstoy’s 1898 treatise defending the moral value of art is titled “What Is Art?”
Tolstoy wrote the work during a period when his religious and ethical ideas strongly shaped his criticism of society and culture. He argued that art should communicate genuine human feeling and help unite people, rather than exist merely as decoration or entertainment for an elite audience.
The book attacks artistic theories based solely on beauty, technical difficulty, or fashionable approval. Tolstoy particularly objected to art that he considered obscure, artificial, or detached from ordinary human experience. He praised works that conveyed sincere feeling clearly and broadly.
“What Is Art?” is distinct from Tolstoy’s 1897 essay “What Is Art?”, whose publication history is often dated differently in reference works; English-language bibliographies commonly identify the completed book as a 1898 publication. It is also different from “The Kingdom of God Is Within You,” a religious and political work rather than a treatise focused primarily on aesthetics.