Hippolyte Adolphe Taine

Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe (1828–93), French writer and intellectual concerned with aesthetics—the nature of art and artistic judgments. He approached his study of art as a scientist. Taine concluded that the artist's art was determined by influences such as the artist's heredity, environment, and aesthetic training. His belief in determinism supported the French philosophical movement of Positivism—a school of thought developed in 19th and 20th century Europe. It also influenced the artistic movement of naturalism in France, of which the 19th-century novels of Emile Zola are examples. Taine's books include History of English Literature (1863), Philosophy of Art (1865–69), and Origins of Contemporary France (1875–93). He was a professor at the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris (1864–83).

See also: Naturalism; Positivism.