It was explained in the preceding Introduction that during the years which intervened between the fourth and the fifth volume of Modern Painters, Ruskin was engaged in four principal directions—(1) in arranging the Turner Bequest (Vol. XIII.); (2) in the criticism of contemporary art; (3) in the teaching of drawing; and (4) in public lecturing. The present volume covers the second branch of these activities. In it are collected the five numbers of Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Royal Academy, etc., which Ruskin wrote between 1855 and 1859; and to these are added the similar Notes written in 1875, together with various other pieces (1858–1888) which have for their subject the criticism of the art or artists of the time. The collection is not exhaustive, as other writings with similar subject-matter are necessarily reserved for later volumes. The most considerable of them are the extensive correspondence between Ruskin and D. G. Rossetti (1854–1867), and the Oxford lectures on contemporary British artists, entitled The Art of England (1884). These lectures are reserved for their chronological place in the series of Ruskin's professorial discourses at Oxford; the correspondence with Rossetti, though it includes many criticisms upon the painter's work, belongs more appropriately to the series of letters which are a memorial of Ruskin's friendships.

The present volume is divided into three parts and an Appendix. Part I. comprises the six numbers of Academy Notes. In Part II. are brought together various scattered pieces on modern painters, draughtsmen, and engravers (1858–1888). Part III. is a reprint of the Notes on Prout and Hunt (1879); while in the Appendix will be found various minor letters, reports, and notes dealing with matters cognate to the other contents of the volume.