The English author Walter Horatio Pater (1839-1894) was the most influential figure in the Esthetic movement of the late 19th century. His writings reveal a mind of sensibility and discrimination, embodying its judgments in carefully wrought prose.

By the 1860s and 1870s the younger generation of British intellectuals was beginning to react against the excessive weight of moral criteria prevalent in critical judgments on the fine arts. Walter Pater led the way in this reaction by stressing the diversity of artistic experience and the need for flexibility in judgments. He directed critical attention to discrimination of the special and essential character of each work of art or artistic personality and to precise analysis of the effect each produces upon the individual. In effect, he developed refinement of critical response into a philosophy of life.

Pater was born at Shadwell, East London, on Aug. 4, 1839. His father, a surgeon of...