Realist Figurative Paintings
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
Period: 18th Century and Earlier
LARGE OLD MASTER LATE 18th CENTURY CIRCLE of THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH OIL PAINTING
By (circle of) Thomas Gainsborough
Located in Ferndown, GB
OLD MASTER LATE 18th /EARLY 19th CENTURY CIRCLE of THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH OIL PAINTING
Fine OIL PAINTING Old Master 18th Century R.A artist in a ...
Category
18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Crossing the ford Capriccio Baroque Landscape 18th century Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
As we gaze upon at this artwork, our eyes are immediately drawn to the foreground where a comical spectacle unfolds before us. A carriage, stubbornly stuck in the midst of a ford, se...
Category
Late 18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood, Cotton Canvas, Oil
Italian Grotto in Ruins Street Scene with Resting Family 18 Century Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
Very well executed mid-18th century artwork, rather oil study, depicts resting family sheltering from the scorching midday sun in grotto shape arch in ruined part of town. Mother fee...
Category
Mid-18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Wood, Oil, Wood Panel
Awkward Situation Genre Scene early 19th century Oil Painting Old Masters Style
Located in Stockholm, SE
This painting was painted by an unknown master at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries. The artist in this painting raises the timeless theme of adultery, skillfully depicting the e...
Category
1690s Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood, Cotton Canvas, Oil
OLD MASTER OIL PAINTING 18th CENTURY Scottish School FINE DETAIL GOLD GILT FRAME
Located in Ferndown, GB
DESCRIPTION
OLD MASTER OIL PAINTING 18th CENTURY Scottish School
FINE DETAIL
GOLD GILT FRAME
NEW COLLECTION Of RARE PIECES OF Scottish HISTORY
Description
( Late 18th centur...
Category
18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
OIL PAINTING FRENCH By ? Beautiful lady of Nobility in a Gold Neoclassical Frame
Located in Ferndown, GB
OIL PAINTING By ? Beautiful lady of Nobility in a Neoclassical Frame
FINE Portrait OIL PAINTING Old Master Early 19th Century
French artist
...
Category
18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
LARGE OLD MASTER LATE 18th CENTURY CIRCLE of SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS OIL PAINTING
Located in Ferndown, GB
HUGE OLD MASTER LATE 18th CENTURY CIRCLE of SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS OIL PAINTING
Fine OIL PAINTING Old Master 18th Century R.A artist in a Large
...
Category
18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
The Mediterranean girl II
Located in Zofingen, AG
In this oil painting, I've poured my soul into capturing the timeless grace of a moment steeped in sunlight and shadows. Her gaze, a silent conversation with the viewer, is filled wi...
Category
17th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
18th Century Portrait, Major Alexander Brown in Military Uniform
By Sir David Wilkie
Located in Cotignac, FR
18th Century Military portrait of a young officer in Napoleonic period military dress. The painting is not signed but the subject is Major Alexander Brown. The work is oil on canvas later mounted on board and presented in a fine 'Regence style' carved gilt frame. There are labels to the back referring to the subject, 'Major Brown of Trinity' and a framers trade label from Edinburgh.
A magnificent and imposing portrait of a young military officer in the prime of his life. His red uniform adorned with fine buttons, fringed epaulettes and high gilt collar. His ruddy complexion offset by his stylish hair, a quiff and swept forward to the sides as was the fashion at the time.
Sir David Wilkie RA (18 November 1785 – 1 June 1841) was a Scottish painter, especially known for his portraits, including formal royal ones, and scenes from his travels to Europe and the Middle East. He painted successfully in a wide variety of genres, including historical scenes. His main base was in London, but he died and was buried at sea, off Gibraltar, returning from his first trip to the Middle East. He was sometimes known as the "people's painter".
He was Principal Painter in Ordinary to King William IV and Queen Victoria. Apart from royal portraits, his best-known painting today is probably The Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch of 1822 in Apsley House.
Sir David Wilkie was actually admitted in 1799 (despite only being 14) through the influence of the Earl of Leven...
Category
Late 18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
Ship Leaving the Bay at Sunrise French Seascape 18th century Rococo Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
Attributed Charles François Grenier de Lacroix or Charles - François Lacroix de Marseille (1700 - 1782) as signed lower left on the stone “Lacroix”. The scene of the departure of nobles on a ship, somewhere among the Mediterranean landscapes at sunrise. Lacroix's sense of color and attention to detail are particularly impressive: the sea is calm, the sun is rising and as a soft pink hue begins to emerge in the clouds, the morning haze has not yet cleared and the air is clear and clean, large ship...
Category
Late 18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood, Oil
The Dance Large Antique Orientalist Oil Painting on Canvas, Signed, 19th Century
Located in Jacksonville, FL
The Painting is Signed
Description:
Fabbio Fabbi (1861-1946) was an Italian painter renowned for his Orientalist artworks and his ability to capture the beauty and allure of Eastern...
Category
Late 18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
17th Century Genre Painting -- The Pipe Smoker
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful genre painting from 18th Century of pipe smoker. Signed lower right edge with monogram "I I E". Oil paint on copper. Condition: good: minor wear/rubbing from frame's rabbet...
Category
Mid-17th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Copper
Half Length Portrait of Mr. Robertson of Edinburgh
Located in Miami, FL
Half Length Portrait of Mr. Robertson
Sir. Henry Raeburn ( Scottish 1756 - 1823 )
Half Length Portrait of Mr. Robertson
29x 24
Purchased, J Leger & Son,...
Category
18th Century Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
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Fishermen on River Idyllic Scandinavian Landscape 19th century Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
The scene of this landscape unfolds with a tranquil river nestled between rolling hills, its heavily wooded banks casting a serene backdrop. In the center of the composition, two fis...
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Bacchante Bathes Faun Childrens at Sunset 1932 Swedish Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
Signed Ernst Gunnar Widholm (1882 - 1953). Vivid sunset color explosion in the coastal green opening reveals sacred action of the mythological reality: beautiful bacchantes taking ca...
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Located in Denver, CO
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"Moonlit River Scene", Early 20th Century Oil on Canvas by Luis Graner y Arrufi
By Luis Graner Y Arrufi
Located in Madrid, ES
LUIS GRANER Y ARRUFI
Spanish, 1863 - 1929
MOONLIT RIVER SCENE
signed and dated "L. Graner, 1925" (lower right)
Oil on canvas
20-1/8 X 30 inches (51X 76 cm.)
framed: 25-3/4 X 35-3/4 inches (65 X 90.5 cm.)
PROVENANCE
NEAL AUCTION COMPANY, New Orleans, LA, USA
Private Collection, Barcelona
Graner paints this work, Moonlit on the river, during his stay in the United States in the last stage of his artistic life, from 1910 to 1928, in full stage of maturity.
This artwork reflects the constant search of the artist for the effects of light in his work. This persistent concern for light remains throughout his artistic life, which he learned in his Parisian stage under the influence of the painter Frances Platour.
The silver light of the moon and the small lights at distance, which are tiny foci of artificial light, reflecting the river water, forming a chromatic range of greens, ocher and pearly that give a certain mystery to the composition, creating a modern approach to the landscape, by placing the two large trees at the edge of the river in the foreground
Luís Graner y Arrufí, Spanish (1863–1929) was a Catalan painter in the Realistic style.
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Influenced by Richard Wagner's concept of "Gesamtkunstwerk" (Total Work of Art), he was motivated to create his own total art experience and organized the "Sala Mercè" (Mercy Hall) in Barcelona's Rambla District. The project involved contributors from every artistic discipline, including the new field of cinematography. The room was decorated by Antoni Gaudí. Other participants included Adrià Gual, Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas...
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Ciel d'été, Original Oil Painting, Landscape, Tree, Ready to hang
Located in AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FR
Work : Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, Unique Work. Ready to Hang with two studs.
Medium : Oil on mounted linen on wood.
Artist : Gabriel Riesnert
Subject : Ciel d'été (Tit...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Figurative Paintings
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H 10.24 in W 12.6 in D 1.19 in
Sunny Italian Amalfi Terrace View 1899 Oil Painting on Canvas Framed Signed
Located in Stockholm, SE
Late 19th early 20th century marked a period of great artistic expression and innovation, particularly in the realm of painting. During this time, artists sought to capture the beaut...
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Pastoral Country Landscape Travelers on a Forest Road 19th century Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
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"Women in garden" 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas
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Summer Landscape with Birches by Austrian Master Gollob Early 20th century Oil
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Original Painting of Sweden Norway Fjord Landscape by Danish Landscape Artist
Located in Preston, GB
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Frame measures 33 x 29 inches
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Previously Available Items
Aphrodite's Kingdom
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Aphrodite is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, passion, lust, beauty, pleasure. My interpretation of the young Aphrodite in her sunny Kingdom. Professional oil paints on...
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A Glimpse into History: Dietricy's Miniature Portrait
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The Traveler's Treasure: A Miniature Portrait
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A Petite Masterpiece: The Traveling Portrait
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Venture into the intricate world of 18th-century European art, and you may stumble upon a captivating miniature portrait we are thrilled to present for sale. This piece is painted in the stylistic realm of Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich...
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Portrait of an old Man with a Beard, Credit Card Size, Oil on Paper, Late 1700s
Located in Stockholm, SE
Delve into the world of 18th century European art, and you'll find a fascinating miniature portrait we are proud to present. Crafted in the style reminiscent of Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich...
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Italian School Trompe L'oeil 18th Century Fireboard
Located in Hallowell, ME
Trompe L'oeil 18th Century Fireboard.
This painting is 41" tall by 74" wide and is a fireboard that serves beautifully as a decorative painting. Oil on wood. Probably Italian.
Trom...
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Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
"Portrait of Founder of Girls Charity Hospital"
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oil painting on canvas, framed
provenance: private collection, Versailles, France
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Realist figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Realist figurative paintings 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 figurative paintings 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, orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Su Yu, Janusz Szpyt, JC Spock, and Matt Talbert. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint 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 figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 0.5 inches across are also available.
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