REALISM

1. How Realist art got its name?

Realist art is named after its realistic approach to painting of the observable
world, free from imaginary or idealized subject matter. You won’t find mystical
landscapes, biblical scenes or Greco-Roman mythological themes

The Realism movement lasted around forty years from 1840 to 1880. It
followed the Romanticism movement and came before Modern Art. Realism
artists tried to depict the real world exactly as it appears. They painted
everyday subjects and people. They didn't try to interpret the setting or add
emotional meaning to the scenes.

Realist artists believed they should approach social issues of modern life and
turn their art into a truthful reflection on the bad situation of ordinary people.
They witnessed the radical changes to modern life during the 1800s as the
Industrial Revolution progressed, and found the poor and working classes to be
a more worthy subject for artistic depiction. So, in Realist paintings, you won’t
find anybody having fun, flirting or dressed elegantly – only the mundane,
everyday activities of humil, anonymous people at home or at work. Most often
the work was labor at a factory or at a farm.

Another source of influence was technology. The photographic process,

invented in Paris in 1839, signaled the birth of photography, which would have
an everlasting influence on the art of painting. Many Realist artists painted
directly from the photographs.

Realism didn’t have a great effect on architecture and had only a limited
presence in sculpture. However, it was significantly present in literature, for
example, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and Charles Dickens’ Hard Times.

2. Rebels of a New Generation

Realist artists were not interested in the past, or in anything that they didn’t
personally experience. That was summed up in a quote by the patriarch of the
movement, Gustave Courbet: “I have never seen angels. Show me an angel and I
will paint one.”
Art that preceded them, in their view, was simply false. Nowhere will you find
in Realist art biblical scenes as in Baroque art, mythological themes as in Rococo
art, or mythical heroes and historical battles as in Neoclassical art. Unlike the
Romantics, who painted mystical nature, the Realists saw only urban wasteland.
Their focus was on the lower class and their hard conditions of work. The
heroic portrayal of the working class was seen as a political agenda and their
art style was rightly regarded anti-authoritarian. The Realists were both
artists and social activists.

3. How to identify Realist art?

A. Realist paintings depict the harsh, everyday reality of ordinary people from
the middle and lower classes of society.

B. Realism is a sympathetic portrayal of poor, urban and rural workers in bent

postures, struggling with their hard, manual labour.

C. The bleak paintings feature a palette of dark colours to emphasize the hard
situation of workers. The subjects are shown serious-looking and humil – there’s
never a cheerful sentiment.