Realism (19th century)

For a long time before this, Western painting was ruled by the academies, which favoured history painting and “high art” and let convention govern style and subject. Realism, in the narrow sense, is the mid-19th-century movement that broke with this by choosing subjects from everyday life and painting them in a naturalistic way. The novelist Champfleury coined the word in the 1840s, and in painting it is tied above all to his friend Courbet. In practice that meant peasants and working people, street life, cafés and popular entertainment, and a franker way of showing the body. These subjects and the naturalistic treatment shocked the mainly upper- and middle-class audiences of the day. Realism arose in reaction to the idealised view of the world held by Romanticism, and stressed precise, vivid detail, even where it was unpleasant. The direct look at nature in the landscapes of the Barbizon school is seen as a bridge toward Realism. Lower-case “realism” is also used loosely for any picture that resembles the visible world, including sharply focused, near-photographic work; this card is about the movement.

Look at who and what the picture is about. Would the academic tradition of history painting have chosen such a subject? Notice, too, how plainly the bodies, clothes and settings are shown.

• Romanticism ロマン主義→Realism grew up against the Romantic outlook.
• Barbizon school バルビゾン派→The Barbizon painters' direct look at nature is seen as a bridge to Realism.