Writings

William Bell Scott was an important art critic in Victorian Britain. His first article on art criticism appeared in Leigh Hunt’s Monthly Repository in 1838, and following the death of his brother David Scott in 1849 he published the Memoir of David Scott, R.S.A., Containing His Journal in Italy, Notes on Art, and Other Papers (Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1850). Together with the Autobiographical Notes of his own life, published posthumously in 1892, the memoir of his brother David is Scott’s most remarkable prose work.

Scott assembled an important collection of engravings and etchings. Through this work, he became a leading authority on Albrecht Dürer and the group of sixteenth-century engravers known as The Little Masters (Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Sebald Beham and Barthel Beham, Heinrich Aldegrever, Georg Pencz, Jacob Binck and Hans Brosamer). Scott was also an early enthusiast for William Blake and organized the groundbreaking exhibition of Blake’s works at the Burlington Club in London in 1876.

Scott’s three major works of art criticism were:

Half-Hour Lectures on the History and Practice of the Fine and Ornamental Arts. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1861. 2nd ed., 1867. 3rd ed., 1874; New York: Scribner, Welford & Armstrong, 1875.
Albert Durer: His Life and Works. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1869.
The Little Masters. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1879; New York: Scribner and Welford, 1879.

In the early 1870s, Scott became the art editor of The Academy. He also wrote for The Examiner, Fraser’s Magazine and The Portfolio.

Scott wrote a number of illustrated gift books on art. These books, eight in all, were intended for a popular audience.

Gems of French Art: A Series of Carbon-Photographs from the Pictures of Eminent Modern Artists, with Remarks on the Works Selected, and an Essay on the French School. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1871. (For Christmas 1870.) With sixteen carbon-photographs.
Gems of Modern Belgian Art: A Series of Carbon-Photographs from the Pictures of Eminent Modern Artists, with Remarks on the Works Selected, and an Essay on the Schools of Belgium and Holland. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1872. (For Christmas 1871.) With sixteen carbon-photographs.
The British School of Sculpture, with a Preliminary Essay and Notices of the Artists. London: Virtue & Co., no date. (For Christmas 1871.) With twenty steel engravings and further wood engravings.
Gems of Modern German Art: A Series of Carbon-Photographs from the Pictures of Eminent Modern Artists, with Remarks on the Works Selected, and an Essay on the Schools of Germany. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1873. (For Christmas 1872.) With sixteen carbon-photographs.
Our British Landscape Painters: From Samuel Scott to David Scott, with a Preliminary Essay and Biographical Notices. London: Virtue & Co., no date. (For Christmas 1872.) With sixteen steel engravings.
Murillo and the Spanish School of Painting, with an Account of the School and Its Great Masters. London: Virtue & Co., no date. (For Christmas 1872.) With fifteen steel engravings and further wood engravings.
Pictures by Italian Masters Greater and Lesser, with an Introductory Essay and Notices of the Painters and Subjects Engraved. London: Virtue, Spalding & Co., no date. (For Christmas 1874.) With sixteen steel engravings.
Pictures by Venetian Painters, with Notices of the Artists and Subjects Engraved. London: George Routledge & Sons, no date. (For Christmas 1875.) With sixteen steel engravings. Reprinted from The Art-Journal (February 1873 to December 1874).