5.3 — Realism
Realism (mid-19th century) rejected idealization and heroic myth, insisting on the truthful depiction of contemporary life—rural labor, urban streets, and social struggle—often at monumental scale.
Context
Industrialization, 1848 revolutions, and shifting class structures spurred artists to confront the present. Photography’s rise sharpened debates about truth and representation.
Key Traits
- Everyday Subjects: Workers, peasants, city dwellers, and unidealized bodies.
- Scale as Statement: Ordinary people painted at sizes once reserved for history painting.
- Direct Observation: Outdoor studies, unpolished surfaces, natural light.
- Social Commentary: Art as witness to inequality and labor conditions.
Definition: Avant-Garde
A self-conscious “advance guard” challenging academic norms and claiming new social roles for art.
France
- Gustave Courbet: “The Stone Breakers,” “A Burial at Ornans” — rural labor and provincial life at grand scale; “origin of the world” controversies.
- Jean-François Millet: “The Gleaners,” “The Angelus” — peasant labor with quiet gravity.
- Honoré Daumier: Lithographs satirizing politics and bourgeois life; “Third-Class Carriage” depicts cramped modern travel.
Britain and the Pre-Raphaelites (A Realist Inflection)
- Ford Madox Brown: “Work” showing diverse social classes in a London street.
- Pre-Raphaelites (Hunt, Millais, Rossetti): Hyper-detailed observation from nature, moral and literary themes with Realist surfaces.
Elsewhere
- Russia: Peredvizhniki (“Itinerants”) like Repin and Kramskoi portray peasants and social issues.
- United States: Winslow Homer’s Civil War reportage and postwar labor scenes; Thomas Eakins’ surgical theaters and rowing scenes with anatomical precision.
Salon Battles and Alternatives
Realists faced resistance from academic juries. Courbet’s “Pavilion of Realism” (1855) was an independent exhibition, signaling new paths outside official Salons.
Note: Photography’s Challenge
Photography intensified questions about truth and artistry. Painters responded with sharper observation or, later, turned toward optical experimentation (leading toward Impressionism).
Legacy
Realism’s focus on the present and on unidealized bodies paved the way for Impressionism’s optical studies and for later social realism. It also reshaped the hierarchy of genres, granting dignity to ordinary life.