Art Genre: Realism - Esther

Realism was the first clearly anti-institutional & non-conformist art movement. 

(artincontext.org) 

To be honest, it’s easy to imagine that most of us have done our best to avoid reality for the last couple of years. On social media, I see more & more about what is on Netflix than what is going on in the world & looking around it’s easy to see why. We are so steeped in, involved with & surrounded by reality & very little of it has been much good. In fact, much of it has been horrible & it’s still going on. Reality has seeped into our DNA & we might currently be reflecting on a past that may well have been the golden age for our lifetimes. So we escape however we can.

Perhaps then, your heart will sink when you see this blog chiming into your escape time with “Realism.” But fear not, the World of Art promises to lift you up & remind you that everything isn’t completely hideous, that people still do good & make beautiful objects to make the world a happier place. Whether it’s film, music or  there are always the visual arts too. To paraphrase Simon Schama, we are the mark-making animals & whether on the making or looking end, it’s a glorious thing.

All that said, Realism was an actual art movement. Realism was what taught us something about ourselves. Until the advent of Realism, the “Grand Manner” prevailed – otherwise known as “high art,” it was the acceptable face of art in academia. It was concerned with classical subjects & the Renaissance, history painting & some portraiture. Stuffy, elitist & presumably intended to edify. Although there is some fabulous High Art, it’s not exactly inclusive then or now.

So something had to give. Of course it did; it’s the job of art to subvert, reject & rebel. Pre-19th Century conventions were chipped away at via Naturalism, then Realism started to take hold. Realism was uncompromising in showing the everyday lives of working class people & showing more honest images of human bodies. In the 20th Century, realism became more important during & after the World Wars & Modern Realism refers to subjects depicted in a realistic way post-Abstraction - it's about style rather than content. Photorealism has taken this a step further & Realism is a general term applied to all kinds of subjects. It should be said though that a slavish devotion to reality in art doesn’t come without its dangers, as we shall see.

Eilif Peterssen (1852-1928), Norway

Laksefiskeren (The Salmon Fisher) (1889)

Peterssen started out with history painting & became enamoured of the practice of painting en plein air – outdoors – in the late 1870s. When he took up Realism, he could ditch the muddy browns of the past & take up a fresher, cleaner palette. This evocative beauty appears to depict the quiet end of the day. 

John Everett Millais (1829-1896), England

Ophelia (1851-2)

As close to Photorealism as it got for its day, Ophelia is stuffed with detail & accurate rendering of the woman & all the plants & flowers nearby. In his bid to make the work as naturally correct as possible, it seems poor old Millais got eaten alive by the ubiquitous insects round the water. He also got into trouble for trespassing. Of course, Ophelia being a Shakespearean subject full of romantic tragedy, the Victorians would have lapped it up, regardless of the suffering he did for his art…

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), France

Joueurs d’échecs (The Chess Players) (1863-1867)

Daumier’s work predates the Realism movement, however his disregard for the class system & his interest in the less represented sections of society proved highly influential on later artists. He was a commentator on the politics of his day. After the 1830 Revolution he satirised (via cartoons) bourgeois & authority figures. They slammed him in jail in 1832 for making fun of the king. Some people have no sense of humour.

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), France

Les Cribleuses de blé (The Wheat Sifters) (1854)

Here we have proper genre art – a scene of people working, doing what they did every day. The depiction of the working class & the frankness of some of the subject matter in Realism was seen as unseemly, often shocking by the middle & upper classes. They were the usual audience for art at the time & these images of a more universal experience saw them less widely represented.

Ilya Repin (1844-1930), Russia 

Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870-73)

Everything about the figures in this painting says struggle & toil. Indeed, Repin was responsible for bringing Realism to Russia in the 1800s. He is deliberately making the point here that the work is hard & the workers suffering. We’re in no doubt whose side he’s on.

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), USA

The Gross Clinic (1875)

It’s interesting how language changes. “Gross” refers (thankfully) to the doctor’s name. It was an important work at the time, since it celebrated the evolving & revolutionary practices in the art of surgery. Surgery at this time would seek to cure or mend ailments as opposed to just cutting off body parts. Dr. Samuel D. Gross is seen here giving a lecture as he conducts the operation in a clean space, although the scene still has some shock value. 

Vasily Perov (1933/4-1882), Russia

Drowned (1867)

You couldn’t have all that Realism without death & drowning seems to be the favoured mode. Sorry.

Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1924), France

Outskirts of Paris (1880s)

The Industrial Revolution begins its destructive work in the name of progress in the background, whilst the honest farmer ekes out a living nearby. Notice which perspective we’re assuming.

William Bliss Baker (1859-1886), USA

Fallen Monarch (1886)

It wasn’t necessarily all about people. Through Naturalism, Realism encompassed the natural world too. Baker sadly died very young after an ice skating accident which left him with a cold & injuries, but he completed over 130 paintings, some of them interestingly in black & white.

Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884), France

October (1878)

The artist who launched a thousand careers in en plein air art. It shows (& is sometimes named as) women picking potatoes. Painted in Damvillers, Russian artist Vasily Surikov described it thus: “Everything is written in the air. Reflexes, colour, giving, everything is whole, unbroken, that is a miracle.”