Realism in Art

Realism is a movement in art that seems mostly innocuous to us today. The idea of depicting everyday reality as it really looked feels obvious, maybe even mundane. But it proved to be a radical idea that helped reshape art history, ushering in changes that would take us from the heights of the Academy style to the explosion of innovation and experimentation that continues to define our own era.

And yet, when most people hear the term “realism,” they generally think of something that looks detailed or is lifelike. It sounds like it just means verisimilitude. But that misses out on just how profound this movement changed art history.

What Is Realism in Art?

Realism is an art movement that focuses on depicting subjects in the ordinary moments of their life.

It emerged in France in the middle of the 19th century, just as the culture was fully immersed in the throws of Romanticism.

For the Romantics, painting was a chance to escape into the sublime. Subjects are almost always idealized, brought up to the absolute dramatic heights of their being. The Romantics painted heroes in landscapes filled with jagged mountains, Elysian meadows, sun-swept days, and stygian nights. These painters thrived on exotic locales and intoxicating energy.

Then the Realists came and shifted the focus entirely. Using more a more subdued palette, they sought to capture candid portrayals of reality. These were honest moments, sometimes pleasant and sometimes harsh. Rather than constructing their images through amalgamation and whole-cloth invention, not unlike a modern-day blockbuster, the Realists liked to paint from direct observation. For this reason, they loved en plein air — a habit that they would hand down to their true inheritors the Impressionists.

As the name might suggest, the Realists were committed to accuracy in their paintings. This is undoubtedly a big piece of the puzzle, but the movement’s name has since caused many people to think this is all that Realism was about. Instead, the visual accuracy emphasized the subject matter. It’s as if these paintings are saying, “Look! This is what life is really like!”

The History of Realism

To see just how exciting and radical Realism really was, we have to understand it in a historical context. The Industrial Revolution pushed people from the countryside into urban centres where new-fangled factories rose to meet the sky, belching out smoke. In politics, nothing was certain, and anything might happen. The Revolution of 1848 had just given rise to the Second Republic in France.

Already, artists like Honoré Daumier were creating political satires that brought a revolutionary political consciousness into art (a rather nasty painting of the King sent him to prison in 1832), but before Realism made its way through the art world, work like his just couldn’t be taken too seriously.

At the time, the Academy had a stranglehold over artistic expression. All the work that hung in the Paris Salon conformed to a very rigid set of expectations and techniques. Perhaps more important was the Hierarchy of the Genres. To paint an impressive, important work, it needed to depict a certain kind of subject matter. Biblical and historical scenes were looked at as the most prestigious. Following them, in order, were portraits, so-called genre paintings (works depicting everyday life), landscapes, and finally, still life.

To give some perspective, this ranking was first put in place in the French Academy in 1669 by Andre Felibien. It later spread throughout Europe. So, by the time the Second Republic was established, this ranking system was nearly 200 years old.

With the political upheaval came a renewed call for centering the common person as the political subject. 1848 was the year that The Communist Manifesto was published — a sign of the rise of the proletarian masses as a major figure in history.

This radicalism gave birth to new ideas in many sectors of society, and art was no exception. In France, the ancien régime of the Hierarchy of the Genres was ready to fall to a perspective much more in line with the sentiments of the era.

Already, some were working toward this end. Painters like Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot could never quite totally step away from Neoclassicism, but many of his paintings strike us today as precursors to this new demand to show life as it was.

What this budding feeling needed was an artist with so much talent that they could not be denied and so much conviction that they wouldn’t stray from their path.

Enter Courbet

Gustave Courbet is often credited as the main protagonist in the rise of Realism in France. Through the middle of the 19th century, he led an all-out rebellion against art by painting works that soberly depicted life in France for the commoners.

Gone were the dramatic epics of Biblical narratives or the portraits of aristocrats. Instead, Courbet gave us works that were large, impressive, and magisterial in technique — but they were about everyday folk.

A Burial at Ornans

His masterpiece A Burial at Ornans (1849-50) is perhaps the best example. It is only a little wider than two feet, but it captures a panoramic view of a burial in the village of Ornans. But Courbet brings to this scene the artistic might and somber gravitas that French painting had reserved for work of a “higher” order. It debuted at the Paris Salon and made an impact that would be felt up to the present day. Realism had begun.

Through his example, the movement gathered new voices and great confidence. Courbet’s masterful paintings backed up his theory, making this new way of making art undeniable.

Major Realist Painters

Now that we have a grasp of what Realism is and what the world it came out of was like, let’s take a look at some of the big names in the movement.

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Realist painting 'The Stone Breakers' by Gustave Courbet, illustrating two laborers in the act of breaking stones, reflecting the harsh realities of rural life near Ornans.

Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)

As we’ve already covered, Gustave Courbet was the leader of the Realism movement. He brought so much artistic vitality and achievement to his work that it made his ideas undeniable. His commitment to depicting unvarnished reality set a new standard, a new way to value paintings that went beyond the Hierarchy of Genres and the dictatorship of the Academy. Courbet’s masterpiece, The Stone Breakers (1849), is emblematic of Realist principles, portraying two labourers breaking stones by the roadside. The painting’s focus on ordinary labourers, combined with Courbet’s use of earth tones and attention to the textures of clothing and nature, underscored his dedication to representing the lives of the common people without romanticization.

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Jean-François Millet (1814–1875)

Jean-François Millet was another pivotal figure in Realism, taking up the movement from a more rural perspective. In fact, he led the Barbizon school, which somewhat predates realism and sought to move landscapes of rural life to a more prominent position in art. The Gleaners (1857) is among his most famous works. The piece brings us into the world of peasant women who glean the fields after the harvest, their traditional garb catching the rays of the setting sun. You can almost hear them chatting about village life, can almost feel the ache in their backs as they bend down to their work once more. Millet’s sympathetic portrayal of their toil and his focus on the dignity of their labor in the face of poverty and social inequality were radical for their time.

A 19th-century painting of a woman baking bread in a rustic kitchen, with her back to the viewer, tending to an old-fashioned brick oven.

Édouard Manet (1832–1883)

Though often associated with the Impressionists, Édouard Manet also helped to develop Realism into something much more adaptable to a wide range of styles and subject matter. Olympia (1863) is one of his most famous paintings, and its frank depiction of a nude woman caused a scandal. Here, he isn’t painting some idealized goddess of love — a conceit that high society would have allowed to give a pass to show such content. Instead, this is a real woman who stares right back at you from her bed. Manet’s use of a contemporary subject, combined with his flat approach to painting and disregard for traditional perspective, marked a significant departure from the norms of the Academy.

Adolph Menzel (1815–1905)

Adolph Menzel gives us a look at Realism as it developed across the continent. He was a German who gave us detailed paintings and drawings of everyday scenes and historical events. His work The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes) (1875) is a prime example of his ability to capture the Industrial Revolution’s impact on workers — as well as the hellish reality of their lives. Menzel’s meticulous attention to detail, his emphasis on the harsh realities of industrial labour, and his capacity to paint intricately staged scenes make his paintings as impressive as they are important. Dive into the world of Adolph Menzel and witness the transformation of art through his exceptional skill in lithography and commitment to realism.

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Adolph Menzel's 1872-1875 painting 'The Iron Rolling Mill,' depicting the raw power of industry in the 19th century.

The Impact and Legacy of Realism

The Realism movement introduced an approach to art that brought with it a revolutionary new view of life — one where the peasant and worker were more important than the king, aristocrat, or industrialist. Today, even artists not particularly interested in the socio-economic sentiments of Realism are still living and working in a mode that these predecessors largely set.

Realism’s impact extends far beyond its 19th-century origins, influencing subsequent art movements and reshaping how artists and the public think about art and its purposes. In particular, it paved the way for Impressionism and directly inspired the Social Realists of later generations.

Influence on Impressionism

By establishing a bulwark against the rules of the French Academy, Realism made so many new things possible. That alone helped to create the ground where artists could think for themselves enough to launch Impressionism. But there are many other ways that Realists fostered this later movement.

Impressionists took inspiration from Realism’s subject matter, even though they explored new techniques related to the effects of light and color. Rather than looking extremely accurate (the invention and spread of the photograph made this less and less interesting for artists over the years), Impressionists sought how the feel of the painting matched the experience of the subject matter. They also learned how color can actually affect the eye, leading to a more optical understanding of painting.

For instance, artists like Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, who had roots in Realism, pushed the boundaries further by capturing moments and movements with a focus on the transient effects of light and atmosphere. In this way, the transition from Realism to Impressionism illustrates a continuum in the evolution of modern art.

The Rise of Social Realism

Realism paved the way for Social Realism, a 20th-century art movement focused on exploring and highlighting the conditions of the working class. These artists created works that critiqued the social structures that maintained inequality, taking the loose and less-explicit political commitments of the original Realists and bringing them front and center.

Like the Realists before them, Social Realists were committed to an unvarnished portrayal of life. Their films, for instance, eschewed sets in favor of the crumbling streets of wartorn Europe. This movement found adherents in a range of forms: painting and photography, literature, and film. And they flowered around the world, from the United States during the Great Depression to the early Soviet Union.

The Ongoing Relevance of Realism

The ethos of Realism remains a substantial presence in contemporary art and criticism. You can see it in the prevalence of themes like social justice, environmental issues, and confessional pieces focused on the mundane aspects of human life. Realism’s influence can be seen in the documentary photography of the 20th and 21st centuries, in the gritty urban landscapes of street art, and in the return to figurative painting by artists seeking to explore the human condition.

Why Study Realism Today?

What began in the mid-19th century has reshaped what we expect art to do. In that way, the Realism movement changed everything. It delivered us out of idealized and often grandiose subjects. It woke us up from the head-spinning effects of ostentatious artistic technique. It reminded us of what is real, and it shone a bright light on the indignity and violence done to workers and peasants.

So, as we explore the history and impact of Realism, we are reminded just how powerful art can be in shaping how we see the world. It can bring our attention to the overlooked and marginalized aspects of life and society. It can celebrate our common humanity and urge us to right the wrongs we see around us. That hope — that art can be a protagonist for good in the world — makes Realism an art movement worth understanding.