Realism
Paint what you see: peasants, labourers and the provinces at the scale of history painting
How to recognise it
- ordinary people at work, life-size
- earthy palette of browns, greys and ochres
- faces and bodies left unidealised
- everyday subjects, no myth or allegory
- dense, heavy paint handling
Why it emerged
The 1848 revolutions put workers and peasants on the agenda, while photography and positivism taught respect for fact. Courbet and writers like Flaubert dropped academic heroes for the present day.
Examples
A Burial at Ornans1849–1850 · Gustave CourbetA village funeral on a 6-metre canvas, the scandal of the 1850–51 Salon and birth of Realism
The Stone Breakers1849 · Gustave CourbetGrinding labour without varnish, hailed by Proudhon as socialist; destroyed in 1945
The Gleaners1857 · Jean-François MilletThe poorest peasant women given the monumentality of a classical frieze; critics saw a threat%20-%20Google%20Art%20Project.jpg?width=640 "Thomas Eakins, American, 1844 - 1916 (1844 - 1916) – Artist/Maker… · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
The Gross Clinic1875 · Thomas EakinsSurgery with blood on the scalpel; peak of American Realism, rejected by the 1876 Centennial art jury.jpg?width=640 "Gustave Flaubert · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
Madame Bovary1856 · Gustave FlaubertImpersonal precision of style; its 1857 obscenity trial ended in acquittalMore in this style
- 1865–1869 War and Peace — Leo Tolstoy
- c. 1884 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — Mark Twain
- 1899 Dom Casmurro — Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
How it spread
- 1849 Ornans
- 1855 Paris
- 1863 Saint Petersburg
- 1869 Munich
- 1875 Philadelphia
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Ife and Benin bronzes Africa
- Ming and Qing Porcelain Asia
- Ukiyo-e Asia
- Romanticism Europe
- Impressionism Europe
- Peredvizhniki (The Wanderers) Eastern Europe & Russia