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REALSIM
Realism, an art movement that began after the French Revolution in 1848 began as a rejection of Romanticism. Realist artists often focused on scenes from contemporary people and life, especially of those in the middle or lower classes. -
"The Stone Breakers" -Gustave Courbet
An oil canvas painting regarded as social realism. Courbet seeks to portray the lives of the utterly poor who partake in back-breaking labor to make a living. Pictured are two men breaking and removing stone to build a road. The background mountains create an image of isolation for the workers symbolizing entrapment both physically and economically. Courbet does not mean to create a heroic image but rather a realistic portrayal of the abuse and deprivation that was common in rural life. -
"Young Ladies of the Village" -Gustave Courbet
An oil canvas painting created in direct opposition to the Romanticism movement. Courbet sought to create a painting based reality by painting a landscape that is commonly considered ugly and rough. The painting seeks to demonstrate the relationship between the rich and the poor as the young woman hands money to a poor girl. The others look on with little regard to the peasantry surrounding them in the countryside. -
"The Painter’s Studio" -Gustave Courbet
An oil canvas painting created to depict the seven years of Courbet’s artistic and moral life. Courbet sought to paint allegorical representations of the various influences on his artistic life. On the left, are figures from varying levels of society. In the center, Courbet paints himself working on a piece while he is turned away from a nude model that generally symbolizes academic art. The right side of the painting depicts figures that were friends and associates of Courbet. -
"The Gleaners" -Jean-François Millet
An oil canvas painting considered the most recognizable of Millet’s paintings but yet received very poorly by the French upper class because it made them feel uneasy about their economic status. The painting depicts the hard work of three peasant women gleaning stray stalks of wheat after harvest has taken place. The painting depicts the lowest ranks of rural society by separating the three women from the other laborers and scavenging for food. -
"The Angelus" -Jean-François Millet
A French oil painting depicting two peasants saying The Angelus at the end of a workday. The church in the background symbolizes the ringing of the church bells that would have ended the peasant’s work and prompted them to pray. The painting captures the timeless countryside and rural world that created harsh working conditions for much of the population. -
"Life in the Iron Mills" -Rebecca Harding Davis
A short story written by Rebecca Harding Davis is set in an iron factory during the nineteenth century. The story follows labor and women’s issues in the factory world through an omniscient narrator who looks out a window observing ironworkers and smog filling a small town. Davis emphasizes the separation of classes with a particular focus on the lower class. Davis works to portray how society’s perception of classes commonly influences the actions of people and relationships amongst them. -
"The Veteran in a New Field" -Winslow Homer
This oil canvas painting was painted shortly after General Robert E. Lee surrendered and President Lincoln was assassinated. Homer seeks to depict a symbolic farmer, thought to be a Union veteran. The veteran is thought to be reenacting the Grim Reaper of Death from the war’s harvest of death and grief. The painting is a symbolic gesture to death and life as well as a deep contemplation on American sacrifice and the potential for recovery. -
"Interior" -Edgar Degas
An oil canvas painting also commonly referred to as The Rape. The painting is often described as Degas’ most puzzling. The painting seeks to depict a tense confrontation between a man and a half-dressed woman. The lighting captured in the painting creates an ominous setting that leads to artistic theorists to conjecture whether the painting is in fact depicting a play. -
"The Apotheosis of War" -Vasily Vereshchagin
An oil Russian landscape painting dedicated to all great conquers of the world. The painting vividly depicts a pile of skulls just outside the wall of a city in Central Asia. The painting portrays the horrific aftermath of a battle in the continual conquest of land during this time period. The birds painted in the background depict the natural process of death’s cycle while also demonstrating the carelessness with which soldiers were treated in both life and death. -
"Christ in the Desert" -Ivan Kramskoi
A Russian painting also commonly known as Christ in the Wilderness. The painting emphasizes Jesus’s figure and depicts him as a dominant figure within the painting. In the background, the cold horizon can be seen. The painting depicts Jesus’s combination of human nature with the divine while also portraying a sense of struggle in even someone as strong and worthy as Jesus Christ. -
"Barge Haulers on the Volga" -Ilya Repin
An oil canvas painting depicting real-life events of 11 men dragging a barge on the Volga River by hand. The painting depicts the hardships common to working-class men of this time period. It documents the social inequality many experienced during the 1870s. It is also a condemnation of profiting from inhumane labor and the inhumane treatment of human beings. -
"The Gross Clinic" -Thomas Eakins
This oil canvas painting is commonly considered one of the greatest American paintings ever created and admired for its important documentation of the history of medicine. Eakins sought to honor the emergence of surgery as a healing profession and to demonstrate the historic theater in the nineteenth century. The painting is regarded for its matter-of-fact goriness and reality of the imagery. -
"Dressing for the Carnival" -Winslow Homer
An oil canvas painting that sought to portray African Americans devoid of the common stereotypes associated with images that were generated during the Reconstruction after the Civil War. The art world is flooded with similar images of African Americans attending a carnival; however, Homer’s painting is unique. It seeks to make its audience feel how far the hopes of emancipation are from the realities of African life in the South despite the result of the Civil War. -
"Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen" -Vincent Van Gogh
This oil canvas painting originally created in 1884 was later modified by Van Gogh in 1885. The painting depicts Van Gogh’s father’s small church where he was the pastor. When modified in 1885, Van Gogh added the congregation and changed the bare trees to being filled with orange leaves. The painting is thought to portray a state of mourning by the congregation. When modified by Van Gogh, it is thought that the painting represented the congregation leaving Van Gogh’s father’s funeral. -
"The Life Line" -Winslow Homer
Regarded as Homer’s masterpiece, this oil canvas painting depicts the common notion of peril at sea due to the power of nature. The painting seeks to celebrate the heroism of humanity and demonstrates the thrill of saving another human being. This heroism often creates unexpected intimacy generated by throwing two strangers together because of a natural disaster. Homer sought to depict the traditional shipwreck and desperation of human struggle. -
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" -Mark Twain
A novel set in a Southern antebellum society along the Mississippi River follows the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a thirteen-year-old boy. Mark Twain’s novel is characterized by his use of local color and narration in vernacular English of the time period. The novel is regarded as the forefront of the regionalism of the realism movement. The piece realistically depicts the relationship between the characters and the wilderness by utilizing the environment as a character itself. -
"The Potato Eaters" -Vincent Van Gogh
This oil painting sought to depict the harsh reality of country life. Van Gogh utilized paintings of individuals who captured the hardships many often faced in this poor environment. The peasants all have coarse faces, covered in dirt, and thin, bony bodies, especially the hands which demonstrate individuals that work with their hands on a daily basis. The title portrays the common foods associated with the hardships of the peasantry: potatoes. -
"Laksefiskeren" -Eilif Peterssen
An oil canvas painting classified as a landscape painting. Peterssen sought to depict the hardships of a man living in the countryside working to feed himself and his family from the local lake. The painting portrays a man with little and clearly tired as he is hunched over his work. The meager boat demonstrates the man’s placement in society. -
"A New England Nun" -Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
A short story following a woman, Louisa Ellis, who has lived alone for many years.14 years previously, Louisa agreed to marry Dagget, a man who has just returned from his Australian fortune-hunting. As the two come together after a long separation, they begin to realize that they only plan to marry one another because they promised all those years ago. Louisa finds Joe a disruption to her solace and Joe has become infatuated with another young woman in town. -
"The Awakening" -Kate Chopin
A novel set in New Orleans, particularly the Louisiana Gulf Coast at the end of the 19th century. The storyline focuses on Edna Pontellier’s struggles between motherhood and feminity. Her views on the two are often considered unorthodox for the American South. The novel, one of the earliest American pieces, that focus on women’s issues. It is regarded as a landmark piece of work for early feminism that does not condescend the typical woman. Kate Chopin focuses on women’s
