Art realism movement

The realism art movement emerged in France in the wake of the 1848 Revolution and lasted until 1880. Although several attempts at infusing realism into art had been made throughout art history, the actual wave of realism art swept the art world after Gustave Courbet's independent exhibition in 1855 of his shockingly truthful realism paintings to a scandalized public who, until then, had only been exposed to original art steeped in the sublime aesthetics of Romanticism or the classical ideal of the Old Masters. Rejecting the idealized classicism of the old academic tradition, the realism art movement found raison d'etre in what Gustave Courbet himself called the “representation of real and existing things.” In realism paintings, ordinary, familiar and unadorned figures and objects become worthy subjects. Often implying a moral or social message, realism paintings present a straightforward depiction of the grim lives of the common folk. But not all realism paintings are intentionally imbued with social consciousness or political subversion; there are also realist paintings that capture every day scenes of contemporary life that the audience may find sweetly sentimental or innocuously spontaneous.

Realism in the arts may be generally defined as the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements.

Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the late 18th century. Realism revolted against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism and drama of the Romantic movement. Instead it sought to portray real and typical contemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy, and not avoiding unpleasant or sordid aspects of life. Realist works depicted people of all classes in situations that arise in ordinary life, and often reflected the changes wrought by the Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. The popularity of such 'realistic' works grew with the introduction of photography — a new visual source that created a desire for people to produce representations which look “objectively real.”

More generally, realist works of art are those that, in revealing a truth, may emphasize the ugly or sordid, such as works of social realism, regionalism, or Kitchen sink realism. The movement even managed to impact on opera, where it is called Verismo, with contemporary working-class heroines such as Carmen, who works in a cigarette factory, and Mimi in La bohиme.

Among the outstanding artists are Gustave Courbet, Jean-Franзois Millet, Honorй Daumier, Edouard Manet, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Jean-Baptiste Simйon Chardin.

By Zakieva Takhmina