I think Walliman makes a good case that that unlike the Romantics Marx "does not envision the idea society as one in which labor productivity is low and in which the individual develops that type of fullness associated with the precapitalist artisan. Rather he sees the productive power of man to be high, enabling the individual under communism to develop in ways hitherto unknown."
Walliman also notes: "Although artisans owned the means for their self activity, 'they themselves remained subordinate to the division of labour and their own instruments of production'(Marx)"
More Walliman ":These two factors then--lack of productivity and the concomitant lack of development of the individual in precapitalist society--show why Marx is not an anti industrial romanticist. Communist society, after capital has 'laid the the appropriate conditions', is seen as the only society in which the fullest development of the individual can occur. This development cannot be understood to mean that individuals will become latter day artisans, since the mode of production will vary greatly from that of precapitalist societies. However, this in itself does not preclude that individuals will not be artists."
>From Isidor Walliman's Estrangement.
rnb