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Overview
What is Realism?
c. 1840 – 1880Period
FranceBegan in
12Key artists on this page
12Works with free images
6Museums to visit
Realism was an artistic movement that emerged in France in the 1840s. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the early 19th century. The artist Gustave Courbet, the original proponent of Realism, sought to portray real and typical contemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy, not avoiding unpleasant or sordid aspects of life. Realism revolted against the exotic subject matter, exaggerated emotionalism, and the drama of the Romantic movement, often focusing on unidealized subjects and events that were previously rejected in artwork. Realist works depicted people of all social classes in situations that arise in ordinary life, and often reflected the changes brought by the Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. Realism was primarily concerned with how things appeared to the eye, rather than containing ideal representations of the world.From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Original Art Movements text
This is the text that appeared on this page on the original Art Movements site. It is kept for reference; some statements are simplified or out of date. Where it differs from the overview, characteristics and dates above, which are checked against Wikipedia and Wikidata, trust those instead.
Realism, also known as the Realist school, was a mid-nineteenth century art movement and style in which artists discarded the formulas of Neoclassicism and the theatrical drama of Romanticism to paint familiar scenes and events as they actually looked. Typically it involved some sort of sociopolitical or moral message, in the depiction of ugly or commonplace subjects. Daumier, Millet and Courbet were realists.
L'Origine du monde by Gustave Courbet, 1866 · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Ordinary people and everyday life, painted without idealisation.
When was Realism?
Realism: c. 1840 – 1880. It began in France. Dates for art movements are approximate.
What are the main characteristics of Realism?
Everyday subjects and working people instead of myth or history; Truthful, unidealised depiction of the world; Often a social or political edge; Earthy colours and solid forms; Rejected the conventions of the academies and the Salon.
L'Origine du monde by Gustave Courbet; Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet; Olympia by Édouard Manet; The Painter's Studio by Gustave Courbet; Woman with a Parrot by Gustave Courbet.
Where can I see Realism art?
Musée d'Orsay (Paris, France), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, United States), Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin, Germany), Amon Carter Museum of American Art (Fort Worth, United States), National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., United States) hold works shown on this page.
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