Definition of "artistic"

He [Abraham Lincoln] leaves for America’s history and biography, so far, not only its most dramatic reminiscence—he leaves, in my opinion, the greatest, best, most characteristic, artistic, moral personality.

1865 April 16, Walt Whitman, “Death of President Lincoln”, in Specimen Days, Philadelphia: Rees Welsh & Co., published 1882–83, page 68

Art should be independent of all clap-trap—should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like.

1890, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, “The Picture Defended”, in Sheridan Ford, editor, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, New York: Frederick Stokes & Brother, pages 69–70

To be artistic, that is, to excite the feeling of beauty effectually, the notes must not be all forte or all piano ; and the execution is the finer the more numerous the gradations—supposing these are such as to satisfy other requirements.

1855, Herbert Spencer, “Æsthetic Sentiments”, in The Principles of Psychology, volume II, New York: D. Appleton and Company, published 1877, page 640

'You've got to do it artistic. Here, like this.'

1963, Geoffrey Tolhurst, Flat 4 Kings Cross, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, published 1966, page 100