Artistic Currents - Realism

Most art historians place Realism between 1850 - 1880, but it's origins could be traced to the first years of the 19th century. It is clear that this new movement was strongly influenced by Positivism, dominant at that time in European thinking. It was a time when everyone placed more faith in science and new discoveries than ever before, trying to solve problems and answer questions in a scientific way, so it was unavoidable for art to follow the same pattern.
So the first reaction in visual arts, mainly in Europe, was the almost violent rejection of everything connected to the Romantic representations - subjective and idealistic - in favour of a realistic and at the same time artistic aproach. In the next decades the academic art will be changed with the introduction of realistic elements and influenced by modern techniques and discoveries, such as photography and the new trends in architecture.
In short, Realism meant to not only break from the Romantic tradition, but mainly to depict life as it was, both from nature and everyday life, truthfully and acurately, rejecting artificiality and false beuty. Models from the street, corners of nature otherwise overlooked, everyday scenes were worthy and rich subjects for Realist painters. Realist artists tried to portray ordinary people and activities, mainly from the lower classes, paying attention to the humble, the weak, the ignored, the poor, their problems, illnesses, few hopes and way of life.
If in France Realism appeared as an expression of democracy and a reaction to the 1848 Revolution, in England it was more of a reaction, strong and ardent, to both the Victorian way of life and the dry conventions of the Royal Academy in London. Realism was used mainly in paintings and graphics, and produced relatively few sculptures, bringing no change in architecture.

There were a few schools of this movement, the first and one of the most important being that of the Realists, which was a group of artists from all over the world, who lived and worked in Paris. They tried to promote a new type of pictorial representation by incorporating modern ideas and discoveries, being fascinated by the effects of light and by vision. Supporting democracy and breaking from the old world of painting, they tried to inspire themselves from the world around them.
Artists : Marie Rosalie Bonheur, John Singleton Copley, Gustave Courbet, Honore Daumier, Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, Thomas Eakins, Ignace Henri Theodore Fantin-Latour, Wilhelm Leibl, Edouard Manet.

The Barbizon School (1840s - 1850s) was without a doubt the most important group of Realist artists, named after the Forest of Fonteblau near the village of Barbizon. There these artists got away from the agitated life in Paris, working in nature and trying to paint it directly. Thei model, in the early days, was Constable, who was the first who promoted landscape painting as a realistic and faithful reproduction of nature.
It was here, at Barbizon, that French painters established landscape and country life as strong themes of modern art. They also put a great price on visible reality.
Artists : Camille Corot, Charles-Francois Daubigny, Jean-Francois Millet, Pierre-Etienne-Theodore Rousseau.

Another important school, this time in England, that will dominate English art in the 19th century, was the so-called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This group began it's activities in 1848, when the Brotherhood was formed by a group of painters, poets, critics, all of them British, who strongly opposed the practices and ideals of academic art. Conssidered to be the first of the avant-garde movemements in art, the Brotherhood held as the main purpose of art the imitation of nature, the artists trying to represent as realistic and faithfully as they could the natural world. For them, the only great art period before them of that of the Renaissance, especially that of Raphael (hence the name), those ideas and principles influenced them.
Comdemning any type of idealisation, the artists of the group preffered real landscapes and models, pying a great deal of attention especially to detail and colours, at the same time keeping a close eye on the moral dimension of their compositions. The landscapes were painted outdoors, the French style, which was new and unusual then.
After this first phase the group entered a second one, dueled mostly by their interest for the Middle Ages, mostly for their stories and legends. Medieval tales, as well as biblical scenes and classic mythology became their main sources of interest and themes, and the compositions were produced in the same realistic style, despite the subjects. Gradually, their collective style changed, showing elements and techniques that were later found in Surrealism and Symbolism.

Artists :
Gustave Courbet
Honore Daumier
Gustave Dore
Jean-Francois Millet
Rosa Bonheur
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Charles-Francois Daubigny
Pierre-Etienne-Theodore Rousseau
Ignace Henri Theodore Fantin-Latour
Edouard Manet
Edgar Degas
J. Dalou

Georg von Dillis
Wilhelm von Kobell
Friedrich Wasmann
Friedrich von Amerling
Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller
Franz Kruger
Carl Blechen
Adolf Menzel

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
William Holman Hunt
Thomas Woolner
John Everett Millais
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
William Morris
Edward Burne-Jones
John William Waterhouse
Ford Madox Brown
Arthur Hughes
Henry Wallis
Frank Cowper
Simeon Solomon
Evelyn de Morgan

Thomas Eakins
Winslow Homer
Francis Coates Jones
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Thomas Pollock Anshutz
Augustus St. Gaudens - sculptor
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