Realism

写実主義 / c. 1840s–1880s / Style / Figurative Painting

Nineteenth-century Realism replaced myth, idealization and heroic drama with contemporary workers, peasants, urban life and familiar places, changing which subjects could occupy serious large-scale art.

Contemporary labor, rural life and urban daily subjects / Bodies, clothes and tools shown without idealization / Large formats traditionally reserved for history given to ordinary people / Restrained color and substantial surfaces for earth, fabric, stone and skin

Realism — ギュスターヴ・クールベ『石割り人夫』— Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
ギュスターヴ・クールベ『石割り人夫』— Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Dictionary entry

Best used for
Making ordinary labor and life a central rather than supporting subject · Showing society through the weight of objects, bodies and places without heroic polish
Type
Restrain headline drama and prioritize specific names, places, work and time.
Composition
Give everyday people the center and a serious scale, letting working posture and surrounding objects reveal living conditions.
Material
Use earth, sooty black and muted blue with palpable paint, leaving wear in hands and clothing visible.
Caution
Photographic detail alone is not Realism. Without its choice of subject and refusal of idealization, it becomes only a rendering technique.
Further study
Nineteenth-century French Realism / Contemporary life and anti-idealization / Courbet, Millet and Daumier

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