In artistic contexts, realism typically denotes an endeavor to portray subjects authentically, devoid of artificiality, hyperbole, or any speculative or supernatural components. While frequently interchanged with naturalism, these terms are not inherently equivalent. Naturalism, conceptualized within Western visual representation, aims to depict objects with minimal distortion, intrinsically linked to the emergence of linear perspective and illusionism during the European Renaissance. Conversely, realism, though founded on naturalistic depiction and a divergence from the idealization prevalent in earlier academic art, frequently designates a distinct art historical movement that emerged in France following the 1848 French Revolution. Driven by a renewed focus on the common populace and the ascent of leftist political ideologies, realism, exemplified by artists such as Gustave Courbet, often highlighted the ordinary, unsightly, or squalid. Realist painters consciously repudiated Romanticism, a movement that had become dominant in French literature and art since the late 18th century.
In art, realism is generally the attempt to represent subject-matter truthfully, without artificiality, exaggeration, or speculative or supernatural elements. The term is often used interchangeably with naturalism, although these terms are not necessarily synonymous. Naturalism, as an idea relating to visual representation in Western art, seeks to depict objects with the least possible amount of distortion and is tied to the development of linear perspective and illusionism in Renaissance Europe. Realism, while predicated upon naturalistic representation and a departure from the idealization of earlier academic art, often refers to a specific art historical movement that originated in France in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1848. With artists like Gustave Courbet capitalizing on the mundane, ugly or sordid, realism was motivated by the renewed interest in the commoner and the rise of leftist politics. The realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate French literature and art, with roots in the late 18th century.
During 19th-century Europe, "Naturalism" or the "Naturalist school" was somewhat deliberately established as a designation for a distinct sub-movement within realism. This movement sought, with varying degrees of success, to differentiate itself from its foundational style by deliberately eschewing political and social commentary. It also frequently asserted a quasi-scientific underpinning, leveraging the connotation of "naturalist" as a scholar of natural history, which was the prevailing term for the biological sciences at that time.
Realism has also influenced various movements across other artistic disciplines, including the operatic style of verismo, literary realism, theatrical realism, and Italian neorealist cinema.
Visual Arts
As an adjective, "realistic" typically pertains to visual verisimilitude, differentiating it from "realist" art, which primarily addresses subject matter. Analogously, "illusionistic" may describe the accurate portrayal of visual appearances within an artistic composition. Within painting, naturalism signifies the exact, meticulous, and faithful artistic representation of scenes and objects. This approach is also termed mimesis or illusionism and became particularly prominent in European painting during the 15th century, notably in the Early Netherlandish works of artists such as Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck. In contrast, 19th-century Realism movement painters, including Gustave Courbet, were not primarily recognized for their absolute precision and meticulous rendering of visual appearances. During Courbet's era, such detailed depiction was more characteristic of academic painting, which frequently portrayed contrived, artificial, or imagined historical scenes with considerable skill and care.
Resistance to Idealization
Realism, or naturalism, as an artistic style, portrays subjects in an unidealized manner and can be applied to any subject matter, not exclusively the typical or mundane. Despite the pervasive idealism in classical art, this approach found classical antecedents, which proved advantageous in advocating for such portrayals during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Demetrius of Alopece, a 4th-century BCE sculptor whose works are now lost, was reportedly known for prioritizing realism over idealized beauty. Similarly, during the Ancient Roman Republic, political figures favored veristic depictions in their portraits, although later emperors gravitated towards Greek idealism. Goya's portraits of the Spanish royal family exemplify an honest, unvarnished representation of prominent individuals.
A persistent theme in Christian art involved a form of "realism" that underscored the human aspect of religious figures, particularly Christ and his physical suffering during the Passion. This artistic development emerged in the Late Middle Ages, influenced by contemporary devotional literature. During this period, certain painted wooden sculptures, especially prevalent in Germany and Central Europe, depicted Christ with an almost grotesque intensity, covered in wounds and blood. The objective was to provoke viewers into contemplating the profound suffering Christ endured. While this trend diminished during the Renaissance, analogous works resurfaced in the Baroque era, notably in Spanish sculpture.
Renaissance theorists initiated a centuries-long discourse concerning the appropriate equilibrium between artistic representation derived from natural observation and that based on idealized forms. These idealized forms typically originated from classical prototypes or the creations of other artists. While some acknowledged the significance of naturalism, many advocated for idealizing nature to varying extents, thereby incorporating only aesthetically pleasing elements. Leonardo da Vinci, for instance, championed the meticulous study of nature, aiming to portray the full spectrum of individual variations in human figures and other subjects. Conversely, Leon Battista Alberti emerged as an early proponent of idealization, emphasizing typical forms. Other figures, such as Michelangelo, supported the selection of the most beautiful aspects, notably declining to paint portraits for this very reason.
The debate persisted into the 17th century, particularly in Italy, where it frequently revolved around the dichotomy between the "classical-idealism" associated with the Carracci and the "naturalist" approach of the Caravaggisti. The latter, followers of Caravaggio, depicted religious narratives as if situated in the mundane backstreets of contemporary Italian cities and self-identified with the term "naturalist." Decades after Caravaggio's premature demise, Bellori, a critic disinclined towards Caravaggio's style, referenced "Those who glory in the name of naturalists" (naturalisti).
In the 19th century, naturalism emerged as a broadly defined artistic movement across Europe, distinct from realism due to its absence of explicit political motivations. The French art critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary coined the term, declaring in 1863: "The naturalist school declares that art is the expression of life under all phases and on all levels, and that its sole aim is to reproduce nature by carrying it to its maximum power and intensity: it is truth balanced with science." Émile Zola subsequently adopted this term, applying a comparable scientific emphasis to his literary objectives in the novel. While many Naturalist paintings explored themes akin to those found in Impressionism, they typically employed more constrained and conventional brushwork techniques.
For several decades, the term "naturalist" was "continued to be used indiscriminately for various kinds of realism," frequently serving as a general descriptor for art that diverged from Impressionism, subsequent Modernist movements, and academic art. Movements such as the later phases of the French Barbizon School, the Düsseldorf School of painting (which attracted international students), and 20th-century American Regionalism are often categorized as "naturalist," though this designation is seldom applied to British painting. More recently, some art historians have attributed the "naturalist" label to either Courbet or the Impressionists.
Illusionism
The evolution of progressively precise artistic representations of visual phenomena possesses an extensive history. This progression encompasses elements such as the accurate portrayal of human and animal anatomy, the application of perspective and distance effects, and the meticulous rendering of light and color. European Upper Paleolithic art, for instance, produced remarkably lifelike animal depictions. Ancient Egyptian art, conversely, established conventions that integrated both stylization and idealization. Ancient Greek art is widely acknowledged for its significant advancements in anatomical representation. Although no original panel or wall paintings by prominent Greek artists have endured, literary records and the extant body of derivative works (primarily Graeco-Roman mosaics) suggest that illusionism was highly esteemed in their painting. Pliny the Elder's renowned anecdote from the 5th century BC, describing birds attempting to peck at grapes painted by Zeuxis, is likely apocryphal.
Beyond precision in shape, light, and color, Roman paintings demonstrate an intuitive yet effective understanding of rendering distant objects as smaller than proximate ones, and depicting regular geometric forms, such as room roofs and walls, with perspective. This advancement in illusionistic techniques did not, however, signify a repudiation of idealism. Statues of Greek gods and heroes aimed to accurately represent idealized and beautiful forms, although certain works, like the heads of the notoriously unattractive Socrates, were permitted to deviate from these aesthetic ideals. Roman portraiture, particularly when less influenced by Greek aesthetics, exhibited a stronger dedication to the truthful portrayal of its subjects, a practice known as verism.
Late Antique art notably abandoned illusionism in favor of expressive power, a shift that was already significantly advanced when Christianity started influencing elite artistic practices. In Western art, the classical benchmarks of illusionism were not reattained until the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance eras. This resurgence was facilitated initially in the Netherlands during the early 15th century, and subsequently in Italy around the 1470s, through the innovation of oil painting techniques. These methods enabled the creation of highly subtle and precise lighting effects by applying multiple layers of paint and glaze. Concurrently, scientific approaches to perspective representation emerged in Italy in the early 15th century, progressively disseminating throughout Europe. Anatomical accuracy was also rediscovered, largely influenced by classical artistic principles. Idealism, mirroring classical traditions, persisted as the prevailing artistic standard.
The precise portrayal of landscapes in painting evolved through Early Netherlandish/Early Northern Renaissance and Italian Renaissance art, reaching a sophisticated zenith in 17th-century Dutch Golden Age painting. This period saw the development of highly nuanced techniques for rendering diverse weather conditions and varying intensities of natural light. European portraiture around 1600, also influenced by Early Netherlandish painting, frequently idealized subjects by refining facial features or adopting stylized poses. Still life compositions, both as standalone works and as elements within broader pieces, significantly contributed to the advancement of illusionistic painting. However, within the Netherlandish tradition of flower painting, these works often diverged from strict "realism." This was evident in the common practice of combining flowers from various seasons, either due to compositional methods based on individual studies or as an intentional artistic convention. Furthermore, the elaborate displays of bouquets in vases, as depicted, were not characteristic of 17th-century customs, where flowers were typically presented individually.
Portrayal of Everyday Subjects
The representation of mundane, quotidian subjects in art possesses a lengthy historical trajectory, although such depictions were frequently relegated to the periphery of compositions or rendered at a reduced scale. This practice stemmed partly from the high cost of art and its typical commissioning for specific religious, political, or personal objectives, which consequently limited the allocation of space or artistic endeavor to these ordinary scenes. Marginal drolleries in medieval illuminated manuscripts occasionally feature miniature scenes of daily existence, while the evolution of perspective introduced expansive background elements into numerous outdoor settings. Conventionally, Medieval and Early Renaissance art depicted non-sacred figures in contemporary attire.
Early Netherlandish painting extended portraiture to lower social strata, encompassing prosperous Flemish merchants. Several examples, particularly Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait (1434) and, more frequently, religious works like the Merode Altarpiece by Robert Campin and his workshop (circa 1427), showcase meticulously detailed portrayals of middle-class interiors replete with carefully rendered objects. Nevertheless, these objects primarily served to convey intricate layers of significance and symbolism, thereby diminishing any inherent commitment to realism as an end in itself. Late medieval artistic cycles depicting the Labours of the Months, numerous instances of which are preserved in books of hours, focus on peasants engaged in seasonal tasks, frequently against elaborate landscape backdrops. These cycles were instrumental in advancing both landscape art and the representation of ordinary working-class individuals.
In the 16th century, a prevalent artistic trend involved the creation of large-scale paintings depicting individuals engaged in labor, particularly within food markets and kitchens. In numerous instances, the foodstuffs received comparable visual emphasis to the laborers themselves. Notable artists of this period included Pieter Aertsen and his nephew Joachim Beuckelaer in the Netherlands, who employed a predominantly Mannerist style. Concurrently, in Italy during the 1580s, the nascent Annibale Carracci adopted an unrefined aesthetic, while Bartolomeo Passerotti's work occupied an intermediate position. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was instrumental in establishing large, panoramic portrayals of peasant life. These early depictions served as a precursor to the widespread popularity of labor-themed genre painting throughout 17th-century Europe. The Dutch Golden Age, in particular, fostered several distinct subgenres, including the Bamboccianti in Italy (though primarily composed of artists from the Low Countries) and the bodegones genre in Spain. This era also saw the integration of unidealized peasant figures into historical paintings by artists such as Jusepe de Ribera and Velázquez. In France, the Le Nain brothers, alongside numerous Flemish artists including Adriaen Brouwer and David Teniers the Elder and Younger, frequently depicted peasants, though urban dwellers were less common subjects. During the 18th century, smaller-format paintings of working individuals maintained their popularity, predominantly drawing inspiration from Dutch artistic traditions and often featuring female subjects.
A significant portion of art portraying common individuals, particularly in print format, often conveyed comic or moralistic themes. However, the subjects' poverty itself infrequently constituted a central element of the moral message. From the mid-19th century onward, artistic representations increasingly underscored the hardships faced by the impoverished. Notwithstanding this development, which coincided with extensive rural-to-urban migration across much of Europe, artists largely continued to depict impoverished rural populations. Conversely, bustling urban streetscapes gained favor among Impressionist and related painters, with Parisian scenes being particularly prominent.
Medieval manuscript illuminators frequently received commissions to depict technological subjects. Following the Renaissance, such imagery persisted in book illustrations and prints, with the notable exception of marine painting, which largely receded from fine art until the advent of the early Industrial Revolution. During the early Industrial Revolution, a limited number of artists, including Joseph Wright of Derby and Philip James de Loutherbourg, rendered scenes from this transformative period. These industrial subjects likely experienced limited commercial success, as evidenced by a conspicuous scarcity of industrial depictions in painting, apart from occasional railway scenes, until the late 19th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, commissions for industrial art became more common, often initiated by industrialists or for institutions located in industrial cities. These works were frequently large-scale and occasionally imbued with a quasi-heroic quality.
American Realism, an early 20th-century artistic movement, represents one among numerous modern currents that adopted this particular interpretation of realism.
The Realist Movement
Emerging in the mid-19th century, the Realist movement developed as a counter-reaction to both Romanticism and History painting. Advocating for the portrayal of 'real' life, Realist painters selected common laborers and ordinary individuals engaged in everyday activities within their typical environments as primary subjects for their artworks. Prominent figures of this movement included Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Ross Finocchio, formerly associated with the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, notes that Realists employed unembellished detail to depict the realities of contemporary ordinary life, a practice that paralleled the naturalist literary movement exemplified by Émile Zola, Honoré de Balzac, and Gustave Flaubert.
The French Realist movement found analogous developments, albeit somewhat later, in other Western nations. Notably, in Russia, the Peredvizhniki, also known as the Wanderers group, established in the 1860s and organizing exhibitions from 1871, comprised numerous Realist artists such as Ilya Repin, Vasily Perov, and Ivan Shishkin, significantly influencing Russian art. In Britain, artists like Hubert von Herkomer and Luke Fildes achieved considerable acclaim for their Realist paintings addressing social concerns.
Literature
As a literary movement, Realism is fundamentally predicated on the concept of "objective reality," often broadly characterized as "the faithful representation of reality." It endeavors to depict quotidian activities and life, primarily among the middle or lower classes, devoid of romantic idealization or dramatic embellishment. According to Kornelije Kvas, "the realistic figuration and re-figuration of reality form logical constructs that are similar to our usual notion of reality, without violating the principle of three types of laws – those of natural sciences, psychological and social ones." This approach can be understood as a general endeavor to portray subjects as they are presumed to exist in a third-person objective reality, without adornment or subjective interpretation, and "in accordance with secular, empirical rules." Consequently, this methodology inherently implies a conviction that such reality is ontologically independent of human conceptual frameworks, linguistic practices, and beliefs, thereby being accessible to the artist for faithful representation. Ian Watt posits that modern realism "begins from the position that truth can be discovered by the individual through the senses," tracing its origins to Descartes and Locke, and receiving "its first full formulation by Thomas Reid in the middle of the eighteenth century."
While the preceding Romantic era also emerged as a response to the values of the Industrial Revolution, Realism, in turn, developed as a counter-movement to Romanticism, leading to its frequent pejorative designation as "traditional bourgeois realism." Certain Victorian literary figures produced works aligned with realist principles. The rigidities, conventions, and inherent limitations of "bourgeois realism" subsequently provoked the revolt later identified as modernism. Commencing around 1900, the primary impetus of modernist literature was a critique of the 19th-century bourgeois social order and worldview, which was challenged by an anti-rationalist, anti-realist, and anti-bourgeois agenda.
Theatre
Theatrical realism is widely considered to have first manifested in European drama during the 19th century, emerging as a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution and the scientific age. Some scholars specifically attribute the invention of photography as a foundational element for realist theater, while others contend that the association between realism and drama is considerably older, evidenced by dramatic principles such as the presentation of a physical world closely mirroring reality.
The significant achievement of realism in theater was its capacity to direct focus toward the social and psychological challenges inherent in ordinary life. In these dramas, characters are often portrayed as victims of forces larger than themselves, individuals confronting a rapidly accelerating world. Pioneering playwrights of this movement depicted their characters as ordinary, often impotent, and incapable of resolving their predicaments. This artistic style aims to represent reality as perceived by human vision. Anton Chekhov, for instance, employed techniques akin to "camera works" to present an uninflected "slice of life." Scholars such as Thomas Postlewait have observed a pervasive intermingling of melodramatic and realistic forms and functions throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, demonstrable by the presence of melodramatic elements within realistic structures and vice versa.
In the United States, dramatic realism predated fictional realism by approximately two decades, with theater historians identifying its initial impetus during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Its development is also attributed to William Dean Howells and Henry James, who served as prominent advocates for realism and articulators of its aesthetic principles.
Following World War II, the realistic approach to theater ultimately converged with nihilism and the absurd.
Cinema
Italian Neorealism was a cinematic movement incorporating elements of realism that developed in post-World War II Italy. Prominent figures in Neorealism included Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, and Roberto Rossellini. Typically, realist cinema addresses societal concerns. Cinematic realism is broadly categorized into two forms: seamless realism and aesthetic realism. Seamless realism employs narrative structures and filmmaking techniques to generate a "reality effect," thereby preserving its perceived authenticity. Conversely, aesthetic realism, initially advocated by French filmmakers in the 1930s and later championed by Andre Bazin in the 1950s, posits that a "film cannot be fixed to mean what it shows," recognizing the existence of diverse realisms. Consequently, practitioners of aesthetic realism utilize location shooting, natural lighting, and non-professional actors to empower viewers to form their own interpretations, rather than being guided toward a "preferred reading." Siegfried Kracauer also prominently asserted that realism constitutes the paramount function of cinematic art.
Filmmakers employing aesthetic realism utilize long shots, deep focus, and eye-level 90-degree perspectives to minimize the manipulation of the viewer's perception. Italian Neorealist filmmakers, active after World War II, adopted existing realist film approaches from France and Italy to create a politically oriented cinema. During the 1960s, French filmmakers produced politically oriented realist works, exemplified by Jean Rouch's cinéma vérité and documentary films. Concurrently, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the British, French, and German New Wave movements in filmmaking generated "slice-of-life" productions, including the kitchen sink dramas prevalent in the United Kingdom.
Opera
Verismo constituted a post-Romantic operatic tradition primarily linked with Italian composers, including Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea, and Giacomo Puccini. These composers endeavored to integrate the naturalism characteristic of influential late 19th-century authors, such as Émile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, and Henrik Ibsen, into the operatic form. This emerging style depicted true-to-life dramas, often featuring gritty and flawed lower-class protagonists, though some interpretations characterize it as an intensified representation of realistic occurrences. While some historical accounts identify Giuseppe Verdi's Luisa Miller and La traviata as early precursors of verismo, others contend that the movement commenced in 1890 with the premiere of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, reaching its zenith in the early 1900s. This was subsequently followed by Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, an opera exploring themes of infidelity, revenge, and violence.
Verismo's influence extended to Britain, where its early proponents included the Victorian-era theatrical collaboration between dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). Notably, their work Iolanthe is regarded as a realistic depiction of the nobility, despite incorporating fantastical elements.
Notes
Notes
References
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- Morris, Pam (2003). Realism. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-22938-8.
- Raben, Hans. "Bellori's Art: The Taste and Distaste of a Seventeenth-Century Art Critic in Rome." Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 32, No. 2/3 (2006), pp. 126–46. Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties.
- Watt, Ian (1957). The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. Berkeley: University of California Press.West, Shearer (1996). The Bullfinch Guide to Art. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 978-0-8212-2137-2.Buchanan, William (1982). The Realist Tradition. In Cencrastus No. 8 (Spring 1982), pp. 17–20. ISSN 0264-0856.
- Buchanan, William (1982), The Realist Tradition, in Cencrastus No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 17–20, ISSN 0264-0856
- Dahlhaus, Carl (1985). Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music. Translated by Mary Whittall. Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26115-9.Dahlhaus, Carl (1989). Nineteenth-Century Music. Translated by J. Bradford Robinson. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07644-0.Frisch, Walter (2005). German Modernism: Music and the Arts. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25148-9.
- Article on American literary realism at the Literary Movements site
- Art term: Realism at tate.org.uk