CONTEXT: WHAT IS
Realism is a visual arts style that depicts the
REALISM?
actuality of what
the eyes can see.
Replaced Neo-Classicism & Romanticism as the
dominant form of art in the 2nd half of the 19th c.
Realism resulted from…

The philosophy of materialism

Widespread industrialization

Revolutions of 1848
The movement originated in FRANCE; emerged in the
U.S. in last decades of 19th c.
CHARACTERISTICS OF 19th c. REALISM:
Insisted on precise imitation of visual perceptions
w/o alteration  did NOT idealize or sensationalize
their subjects
Goal  truth & accuracy
Subjects  ordinary people, situations, dilemmas &
objects portrayed w/ minimal distortion

Gods, goddesses & heroes of antiquity are OUT!

Peasants & urban working class are IN!

Emphasis on natural landscapes
Dark, drab colors w/ vague contrasts b/t light &
shadow
Often provided a social, political and/or moral
message
Honoré Daumier , The Third
Class Carriage (1862)
Gustave Courbet, Burial at
Ornans (1848)
Courbet’s The Stone Breakers (1849)
Gustave Courbet’s Interior of My Studio
(1854-55)
Rosa Bonheur, The Horse
Fair (1853-55)
The Barbizon School:
School of Landscape painters influenced by
English Romantic painter John Constable
Started in 1830s
Painted outdoors around French town of
Barbizon
Painted actual scenes instead of imagined ones
The two most famous artists:

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875)

Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875)
Jean-Francois Millet’s The
Gleaners (1857)
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s Souvenir de
Mortrefontaine (c. 1864)