Realism is an artistic movement that emerged in the mid-19th century in France and spread across Europe and beyond. It is characterized by the accurate, detailed, and unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life, rejecting the idealization and exaggeration of classical and romantic art. Realism focuses on the ordinary, the humble, and the unexceptional aspects of life and society, portraying them with objectivity and honesty. Realism also implies a certain grittiness and harshness in the choice of subject matter, such as poverty, violence, disease, and death.

Realism was influenced by several intellectual and social developments in the first half of the 19th century, such as the rise of democracy, industrialization, urbanization, journalism, photography, positivism, and socialism. Realist artists sought to reflect the reality of their time and place, as well as their own personal views and experiences. They used perspective, light, shadow, color, and texture to create an illusion of space and depth, setting the composition and lighting such that the subject appears real.

Realism was first coined as a term by the French novelist Champfleury in the 1840s, and was exemplified by his friend Gustave Courbet, who is considered the leader of realism in painting. Courbet’s works, such as The Stone Breakers (1849), A Burial at Ornans (1849-50), The Artist’s Studio (1854-55), and The Origin of the World (1866), shocked the public with their unconventional subjects, large scale, and crude style. Courbet declared that he was “painting only what he could see” and that he was “not only a realist but a democrat as well”.

Other prominent realist painters include Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Gustave Caillebotte, Henri Fantin-Latour, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Ivan Kramskoy, Ilya Repin, Ilia Efimovich Repin , Adolph von Menzel , Wilhelm Leibl , Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot , Jules Bastien-Lepage , Léon Bonnat , Jules Breton , Rosa Bonheur , Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin , Théodore Rousseau , Camille Pissarro , Alfred Sisley , Claude Monet , Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Paul Cézanne , Vincent van Gogh , Paul Gauguin , Georges Seurat , Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , and many others.

Realism had a significant impact on the subsequent artistic movements, such as impressionism, post-impressionism, naturalism, social realism, regionalism, American scene painting, Ashcan School , Neue Sachlichkeit , magic realism , photorealism , hyperrealism , and others. Realism also influenced other artistic disciplines such as literature, music, theater, cinema, and photography