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.
At a glance
Visual cues
- 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
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
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Dictionary entry
- 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
Related entries
- Romanticism (ロマン主義)Same Figurative Painting lineage.Compare Realism and Romanticism
- Naturalism (自然主義美術)Same Figurative Painting lineage.Compare Realism and Naturalism
More from Figurative Painting
Continue through styles in the same Figurative Painting family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Ashcan School (アシュカン・スクール)Shared effects: Rebellion / Intimacy / Trust.
- Academic Art (アカデミック美術)Shared effects: Trust.
- Return to Order (秩序への回帰)Shared effects: Trust.
Browse all Figurative Painting entries
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- https://indexstyle.org/styles/realism
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