1. Presenter: Drashti V. Dave
Presentation topic: Transience nature of art and life as well as
art as means of preservation through Lily’s painting.
Submitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English
Maharaja Krisnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Paper no: 09- The Modernist Literature
Roll no: 06 Year: 2014
M.A. Sem:3
part-2

2. What is art?
• Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those
activities; which includes the creation of images or objects in fields
including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other
visual media. Architecture is often included as one of the visual arts;
however, like the decorative arts, it involves the creation of objects
where the practical considerations of use are essential—in a way that
they usually are not in a painting, for example. Music, theatre, film,
dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature and other media
such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of art.
Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not
differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th
century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts
are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as
the decorative or applied arts.
• Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of
reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities.
During the Romantic period, art came to be seen as "a special faculty of
the human mind to be classified with religion and science".
• (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art)

3. The Transience nature of Art and Life:
• Nothing is permanent; everything is constantly changing.
• Transience nature of art, life and work.
• Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay have completely different approaches to life.
• Mr. Ramsay relies on his intellect, while Mrs. Ramsay depends on
her emotions. But they share the knowledge that world around
them is transience.

4. • Mrs. Ramsay is keenly aware as her husband of the
passage of time and of mortality. Whereas Mr. Ramsay is
bowed by the weight of his own demise.
• Both have different attitude toward life.
• Her reaction (about life or work) is completely different
from her husband’s.
• Both characters represent transience of life and work,
including art.
• Like approaches of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay art is also
constantly changing.
• Video:

6. Art as a Means of Preservation:
•Title is more related with Lily’s character, because only she finds
way to preserve her experience through her art.
• Lily begins her portrait of Mrs. Ramsay at the beginning of the
novel but she fully complete it after ten years.
• For example: Ode on a Grecian Urn; in that Keats emphasizes the
fact love, beauty and youth are all immortalized in the work of art.
• At the same way Lily’s art is symbolically presented here.

7. • Her art helps Lily to brush
aside Charles Tansley’s
comments about women
“can’t paint, can’t write”
(136). Fully acknowledging
that painting is a lonely
profession especially for a
woman, Lily realizes that by
stepping back, she can see her
canvas in perspective.
• Lily is independent: she is an
artist. Lily no longer worries
that her paintings would be
unappreciated by others, for
she now paints for herself: “It
was done; it was finished…I
have had my vision” (176).

8. Lily’s painting:
• Her painting represents a
struggle against gender
convention.
• Her desire to express Mrs.
Ramsay’s essence as a wife
and mother.
• Through her art she
impulse modern women.
• One side Lily Briscoe
finished her painting at a
same time Woolf finished
her writing.

9. Conclusion:
• Art is perhaps, the only hope of security in a
world destined and determined to change.
• The painting also represents dedication to a
feminine artistic vision, expressed through
Lily’s anxiety.
• Woolf’s writing synthesizes the perception of
her many characters to come to a balanced
and truthful portrait of the world.