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Realist Photography

REALIST STYLE

Realist art attempts to portray its subject matter without artifice. Similar to naturalism, authentic realist paintings and prints see an integration of true-to-life colors, meticulous detail and linear perspectives for accurate portrayals of the world. 

Work that involves illusionistic techniques of realism dates back to the classical world, such as the deceptive trompe l’oeil used since ancient Greece. Art like this became especially popular in the 17th century when Dutch artists like Evert Collier painted objects that appeared real enough to touch. Realism as an artistic movement, however, usually refers to 19th-century French realist artists such as Honoré Daumier exploring social and political issues in biting lithographic prints, while the likes of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet painting people — particularly the working class — with all their imperfections, navigating everyday urban life. This was a response to the dominant academic art tradition that favored grand paintings of myth and history. 

By the turn of the 20th century, European artists, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, were experimenting with nearly photographic realism in their work, as seen in the attention to every botanical attribute of the flowers surrounding the drowned Ophelia painted by English artist John Everett Millais.

Although abstraction was the guiding style of 20th-century art, the realism trend in American modern art endured in Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and other artists’ depictions of the complexities of the human experience. In the late 1960s, Photorealism emerged with artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes giving their paintings the precision of a frame of film.

Contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Aliza Nisenbaum are now using the unvarnished realist approach for honest representations of people and their worlds. Alongside traditional mediums, technology such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations are helping artists create new sensations of realism in art.

​​Find authentic realist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Realist
Wisteria Blossoms Kameido Tokyo – hand-colored Meiji era photograph, Japan

Wisteria Blossoms Kameido Tokyo – hand-colored Meiji era photograph, Japan, circa 1900

$400

Wisteria Blossoms Kameido Tokyo – hand-colored Meiji era photograph, Japan

Located in Middletown, NY

Yokohama, Japan: c 1900. Hand-tinted albumen print, 7 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches (190 x 242 mm), numbered A 536 in negative and captioned on lower right. Unmounted; housed in an archival ma...

Category

Late 19th Century Realist Photography

Materials

Watercolor, Photographic Paper

Versailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1904, No. 6483
Versailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1904, No. 6483

Eugène AtgetVersailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1904, No. 6483, 1904

$3,000

Versailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1904, No. 6483

By Eugène Atget

Located in Middletown, NY

Albumen silver print from glass negative, 8 1/2 x 7 inches (215 x 178 mm). From the artist's series on sculptures on the grounds of Versailles. Annotated in Atget's hand in pencil o...

Category

Early 20th Century Realist Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Pink Accessory, Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Pink Accessory, Slim Aarons Estate Edition

Slim AaronsPink Accessory, Slim Aarons Estate Edition, 1955

$5,400

Pink Accessory, Slim Aarons Estate Edition

By Slim Aarons

Located in Los Angeles, CA

circa 1955: Film star Joan Collins in a pink and white bedroom with an accessory pink poodle. Slim Aarons Pink Accessory, Estate Edition Chromogenic Lambda print 1955, Printed Later...

Category

1950s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Dimitris Kritsas at the Temple to Poseidon, Sounion, Greece, Estate Edition
Dimitris Kritsas at the Temple to Poseidon, Sounion, Greece, Estate Edition

Slim AaronsDimitris Kritsas at the Temple to Poseidon, Sounion, Greece, Estate Edition, 1961

$3,600

Dimitris Kritsas at the Temple to Poseidon, Sounion, Greece, Estate Edition

By Slim Aarons

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Dimitris Kritsas, a fashionable young couturier, poses among the gleaming white Doric columns of the temple to Poseidon at Sounion, Greece, 1967. Posing with him, four models show off colorful dresses of red, salmon, turquoise, and pastel yellow. This iconic photo depicts a scene of vintage glamour set against a classic Greek blue sky. Slim Aarons Dmitris Kritsas at the Temple to Poseidon, Sounion, Greece Estate Edition of 150 1967, Printed Later 48 x 48 inches $4500 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 30 inches $3350 20 x 20 inches $2500 Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Over the course of a career lasting half a century, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) portrayed high society, aristocracy, authors, artists, business icons, the celebrated and their milieu. In doing so, he captured a golden age of wealth, privilege, beauty and leisure that occurred alongside—but quite separate from—the cultural and political backdrop of the second half of the Twentieth Century. The Slim Aarons Estate has released the limited Estate edition as a Lambda print, which is a modern c-type prints. They have chosen Lambda prints for their sharpness, clarity, colour saturation and quality, compared to archival inkjet prints. Lambda printing gives true continuous tone. Site Details: The Temple of Poseidon is an ancient Greek temple on Cape Sounion, Greece, dedicated to the god Poseidon. There is evidence of the establishment of sanctuaries on the cape from as early as the 11th century B.C. Sounion’s most prominent temples, the Temple of Athena and the Temple of Poseidon, are however not believed to have been built until about 700 B.C., and their kouroi (freestanding Greek statues of young men) date from about one hundred years later. The material and size of the offerings at the Temple of Poseidon indicate that it was likely frequented by members of the elite and the aristocratic class Approximately 13 kilometers south of Thorikos in the southern most region of Attica, the deme of Sounion is most well known for its sanctuaries of Poseidon and Athena. Its placement at the foot of Attica allowed it to function as a border deme as it could easily been seen by ships nearing Attica. The temple of Poseidon at Sounion was constructed from 444 to 440 BC. This was during the ascendancy of the Athenian statesman Pericles, who also rebuilt the Parthenon in Athens. The temple of Poseidon was built on the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic period, about which the Greek geographer Strabo noted: "Geraistos [in Euboia] . . . is conveniently situated for those who are sailing across from Asia to Attica since it is near Sounion. It has a sanctuary (hieron) of Poseidon, the most notable of those in that part of the world, and also a noteworthy settlement. The main temple we see today is mainly made out of marble with an intricate taenia (the fancy borders on the ceiling). The marble is an Agrileza marble. The marble used on the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion came from the marble quarries, a place where marble is removed from the earth, in the Agrileza mines. This type of marble was 'coarsed grained' meaning that it had a rougher texture than smooth, shiny marble. As indicated by literary and archaeological evidence, the "leveled summit" on the coast of Cape Sounion was likely a cult site from as early as the end of the eighth century BC. Two cult centers dedicated to Athena and Poseidon respectively are believed to have been established by 700 BC. Subject: The name of Greek fashion designer...

Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Mt Lyell Clouds, Yosemite - Black & White California Landscape Photograph
Mt Lyell Clouds, Yosemite - Black & White California Landscape Photograph

Charles CramerMt Lyell Clouds, Yosemite - Black & White California Landscape Photograph, 1989

$1,080Sale Price|20% Off

Mt Lyell Clouds, Yosemite - Black & White California Landscape Photograph

By Charles Cramer

Located in Soquel, CA

Elegant hand signed black & white photo highlighting the sharp contrast between the Yosemite mountain range of Mt. Lyell and the beautiful clouds above by Charles Cramer (American, b...

Category

1980s Realist Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Realist photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist photography available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, red, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Slim Aarons, Pico Garcez, Kind of Cyan, and Massimo Listri. Frequently made by artists working with Digital Print, and Lambda Print and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Realist photography, so small editions measuring 3.94 inches across are also available. Prices for photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $105 and tops out at $75,000, while the average work sells for $3,000.

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