Nineteenth-Century French Realism

Nineteenth-century French Realism was a loosely aligned artistic movement that favored depictions of everyday life based on direct observation, typically paintings focused on working class or peasant subjects. In this sense, art historians often capitalize the word “Realism” to distinguish it from “realism” or “naturalism,” terms that denote artistic fidelity to appearance, whatever the subject matter or period. Realism in the visual arts parallels a turn away from Romanticism in literature, as indicated in the works of Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, and Emile Zola. Stylistic and iconographic precedents to Realism can be found in the urban scenes of the politically engaged art social of the 1830s—Philippe-Auguste Jeanron is typical—and in Barbizon paintings of landscapes and peasants. However, it is only after the public revelation of the invention of photography in 1839 that Realism emerged as a coherent alternative to the idealized representations favored by the Academy. As a movement, Realism’s period of greatest prominence lasted from the 1840s to the 1870s, with the apex of its cultural significance in the decade after the Revolution of 1848. Its relation to politics—democracy and socialism, most notably—has been a subject of controversy from the beginning, with sympathetic early critics like Max Buchon and Champfleury offering very different accounts of the same works. Five artists have come to exemplify nineteenth-century French Realism: Honoré Daumier, Jean-François Millet, Gustave Courbet, Rosa Bonheur, and, to a lesser extent, Jules Breton. Much of the writing on Realism takes the form of focused studies of their work. Some general histories of Realism include the work of Edouard Manet and artists close to him in the 1860s, although specialized studies tend to treat them as either transitioning away from Realism or overturning it entirely. French Realism had numerous international counterparts and followers. Nonetheless, art historians debate the extent to which these various national schools fall under the rubric of Realism, and consequently they remain a distinct area of study. Although the historical legacy of Realism is complex, closely related concerns can be found in two movements that followed: Impressionism and Naturalism. The revival of Realism in the twentieth century constitutes a separate topic.