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Realism" is an artistic term that has changed throughout the years. In some eras, it has referred to a exact, almost photographic attention to physical detail, while in others it has referred to a focus on everyday, sometimes controversial, subject matter.
"The Stonebreakers," Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet emphasized the wearying quality of manual labor in painting anonymous laborers engaged in back-breaking work. The work stood as a stark refutation of the custom of depicting labor as triumphant and effort-free.
"Madame X," John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent caused a tremendous controversy by depicting his subject, a noted socialite, with a plunging neckline and a haughty manner. While by most accounts accurate, the painting deviated sharply from traditional American notions of social portraiture.
"The Problem We All Live With," Norman Rockwell
This painting depicts Ruby Bridges, a young black girl marching to a newly desegregated New Orleans school in the company of federal marshals. The painting is realistic both in its detail and its attention to a current political subject.
"The Gross Clinic," Thomas Eakins
Thomas Eakins shows a surgery lesson at a medical school in elaborate anatomical detail. The sickened spectator in the background perhaps mirrors the reaction of the viewer.
"Women Ironing," Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas broke from his normal subject matter, which centered around dancers and affluent society, to offer a simple painting of two plump women ironing.
"Portrait of the Artist's Mother," James Abbott McNeill Whistler
James Whistler's painting is simple and spare, a curiously scientific study of one's close relative.
