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Realist 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
Color:  Pink
Inner Circle
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (Issued by the Gallery) About Artist Clinton Odhiambo popularly known as Clinton Artisto is a self-taught composite realism artist from Kibera Nairobi, Kenya whose work generally investigates and portrays the beauty of struggle faced by common people especially women in their daily life, environment, and the environment he faces. He uses women as a symbol of strength and hope for the future. His motivation comes from people around him and their environment, memories, photographs, and sometimes conceptualizing his ideas from dreams and imagination. His main inspiration has always been hope for a better tomorrow. He uses acrylic paint as a medium to portray his subjects in a realistic manner while he also uses color according to the mood he wants to support the story of his subjects. born in 1997 in Asembo Kenya, Clinton moved with his parents to Kibera slums in Nairobi to look for a greener pasture, he joined Kibera primary school and later started painting while in class seven in order to pay for his school fees. He has been featured in several group exhibitions Hamptons Fine Art Fair, NYCartwalk, Kenya Art...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Ethereal Symphony: Vibrations of 5D Mushroom- butterfly contemporary realism
Located in London, Chelsea
Ethereal Symphony: Vibrations of 5D Mushroom Ascension" is a captivating artwork that transports us into a mystical realm where the ethereal and the earthly converge. This painting i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Celestial Metamorphosis: Embracing the Ascended- butterfly contemporary realism
Located in London, Chelsea
"Celestial Metamorphosis: Embracing the Ascended Self"is a captivating and transformative painting that invites viewers into a vibrant realm of spiritual growth and enlightenment. In...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

The Wine Cabinet, Bottles Display, Pink Tones, Modern Still Life Naive Realist
Located in Barcelona, ES
"The Wine Cabinet" is a modern still life with a naive atmosphere where five exquisite bottles of wine stand tall on a sleek, minimalist table. Details: Title: The Wine Cabinet Me...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Oil, Watercolor

Fuchsia and Violet
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Fuchsia and Violet colored crumpled tissue paper and a bistro glass, back lit. A study in color and texture. Painted from life, not a photo.
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Inside 2, Painting, Oil on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
Rembovsky is the artist with formed, well-recognised authorial style of execution and conceptual vision. With his work, he boldly enters the European artistic space, and with his ori...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

Piggy in the Middle
Located in Deddington, GB
Marie Robinson Piggy in the Middle Original Still Life Painting Oil Paint on Canvas Canvas Size: H 31cm x W 32cm x D 2cm Framed Size: H 36cm x W 42cm x D 3cm Sold Framed in a White B...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Opened Eyes - Oil Acrylic Figurative Painting Ivory Blue White Brown Green
Located in Sofia, BG
" Opened eyes " is a modern art line painting by Maestro Dimitar Voynov -Junior, About the artwork: TECHNIQUE: Acrylic, oil on canvas painting STYLE...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Quartet
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Painted directly from live observation, Doug Newton’s hyper-real paintings explore translucency, reflections and luminosity, and dazzle the viewer with ...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

Stride
Located in Greenwich, CT
Scott Duce is an international artist working in New York. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States, with several solo exhibitions in New York City, Chicago, Boston, ...
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2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Challenge Issued, Painting, Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
A beautifully coloured bantam fighting cock has issued a challenge to any other roosters in the area. This avian painting has been created using profess...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Woman in a Kimono, Painting, Oil on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
Art influenced by Japan has a long tradition in the West beginning with the Impressionist. The painting Woman in a Kimono continues that tradition in subject matter motif and the for...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Waiting for Birth" Oil Painting 20" x 16" inch by Dmitriy Krestniy
Located in Culver City, CA
"Waiting for Birth" Oil Painting 20" x 16" inch by Dmitriy Krestniy A look through Dmitriy’s designs reveals a glamorous, feminine, provocative yet sensual style influenced by his natural Ukrainian exuberance. He understands and respects the art’s body which continuously is at the center of his paintings. His preference goes by drawing with pastels, oil and charcoal to create innovative paintings among which are such style as photorealism where the artist writes such paintings as the pictorial art...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Peony 26
Located in New York, NY
oil painting on stretched canvas Leigh Wen’s works reflect her personal and cultural histories. Having grown up on the island of Taiwan, she has a deep affi...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Linen, Stretcher Bars, Canvas, Oil, Varnish

Chatfield, Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Daniel Sprick's "Chatfield" envelopes the viewer in the silent beauty of winter's embrace, kissed by the hues of days end. About the artist: "Upon first glance, viewers might think Daniel's works are photographs because of their stunningly realistic elements. However, the longer we look at one of his paintings, the more we become aware that they are anything but a part of our world. We encounter Sprick's paintings not so much as statements, but more as experiences, whereby we engage deeply with his creativity. - Timothy J. Standring, exhibition curator and Gates Foundation Curator at the Denver Art Museum. Daniel Sprick's Fictions: Recent Works includes more than 30 examples of the Colorado artist's portraiture and still life paintings that blur the line between realism and abstraction. His meticulous representation of everyday objects and stirring interpretation of the human form provide viewers a new way to look at the world. Born: May 1, 1953, Little Rock, Arkansas Education: AA-Mesa College, Grand...
Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

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Gilbert Lewis (b.1945). Untitled Male Portrait (Red Sleeveless), 1985. Gouache on museum board, 18 x 22 inches. Framed measurement: 25 x 29.5 inches. Signed and dated upper left. No damage or conservation. Provenance: estate of the artist. Artist statement: Figurative art is a vital active process. The image has its own meaning; not storytelling, not just a picture of a face or a flower. Neither is it simply an exercise in the arrangement of shapes or colors. I want to translate my immediate impression into paint to present the image of an outstretched branch of flowers or a face – direct and simple. My art reflects human concerns expressed symbolically, through fantasy and in a more concrete manner in the process of making the representation itself. Art is my response to the image, the end result of an active process of exploration of the limits of the paint on paper within the confines of representation. The painting of a face is not just a face. My feelings are expressed through these images. My paintings speak to anyone in touch with their own humanity; to anyone else my art may be dismissed as “to personal”. Biography: Gilbert Braddy Lewis born September 25, 1945 in Hampton, Va. Son of David Blake Lewis (born in Atlanta, Ga.) and Gladys Louise Braddy [Lewis] (of Sanford, Fl.); brother of David Blake Lewis (Jr.) and Linda Lewis [Hunter]. The family resides at 3 South Linden Street, Hampton, Va. 1953 until 1962 “I studied from the age of seven, in Virginia, with two well-known Tidewater artists, Jean Craig and the late Allan Jones. The teaching methods of carefully observed studies from nature in charcoal or tempra paint, derived, of course, from the original French academic model, conveyed its impact on my early development; however, my eye and consciousness were mostly activated by the reproductions on the studio wall of works by Botticelli, Da Vinci, and Michelangelo.” Gilbert Lewis in Contemporary Philadelphia Artists: A Juried Exhibition, (Philadelphia Museum of Art 2000), p. 145 1963-68 Studies at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Franklin Watkins, Hobson Pittman, Morris Blackburn, and Walter Stuempfig. While a student at PAFA he shares apartment [261 South 21st Street] with PAFA students, Jody Pinto and Barbara Sosson. In 1967 he receives PAFA’s: Bergman Prize in Painting; M. Herbert Syme Prize; and Samuel Cresson Memorial Travelling Scholarship. The latter award enables Lewis to travel to Europe during the summer of 1967 where he visits museums. “In 1967, after having seen the Italian master’s work while on scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy, I was to realize my great influences and to discover the earlier Sienese masters whose clarity and energy still move me.” Gilbert Lewis in Contemporary Philadelphia Artists: A Juried Exhibition, (Philadelphia Museum of Art 2000), p. 145 1968 Horizontal painting [of an interior with a seated woman and cat by a large window] reproduced in black and white in school catalog for Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 1968-1969, p. 24. Other students whose works are reproduced include Clayton Anderson, Barkley Hendricks, Paul Kane, Jody Pinto, Bruce Samuelson, Barbara Sosson, and James Victor. Gloria Etting, Philadelphia The Intimate City (New York: A Studio Book – The Viking Press, 1968), photograph of Gilbert Lewis drawing in the cast hall of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts reproduced in the chapter titled, “Art and Collectors,” n.p.. 1974 May 31, 1974, awarded Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the Philadelphia College of Art 1978 Received a Master’s Degree in Creative Arts in Therapy (MCAT) from Hahnemann University, Philadelphia. Gilbert Lewis, The Spontaneous Art Productions of an Institutionalized Geriatric Population: a thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate School, Hahnemann Medical College, March 30, 1978 Late 1970’s to late 1980s/early-1990s, works as art therapist at Manchester House Nursing Center/Home in Media, Pa. 1977 Summer: studies at the American Projective Drawing Institute’s Annual Summer Institute run by Emanuel F. Hammer, Ph.D. 1981 First solo exhibition at Peale House Galleries (East Gallery) of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, March 5 – 27, 1981 “Since art school I’ve turned from oil to media of gouache and pencil, separately and sometimes together. I’m trying to discover for myself the power of observation without sacrificing the passion of the art materials.” Gilbert Lewis in Contemporary Philadelphia Artists: A Juried Exhibition, (Philadelphia Museum of Art 2000), p. 145 1986 Elizabeth Leonard, Painting Flowers, (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications 1986), reproduced in color, pp. 56, 67, 110, and cover Travels to Italy: Florence, Venice… 1988 Work acquired by Philadelphia Museum of Art: Autumn, 1987, gouache, purchased with Julius Bloch Memorial Fund 1991 October 10, receives A.T.R. from American Art Therapy Association, renewed in 1996 1992 Applies to American Academy in Rome, Philadelphia Regional Visiting Artists Program Around this time he has artwork with American Artist Gallery, Wayne, Pa. 1992 (June) lives at 322 South Street. By May 1994 living at 1804 Catharine Street (until January 2017). 1998 Group exhibition: 135th Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Pa., March 22 – April 26, 1998. Awarded Honorable Mention c. 1999-2007+ teaches at PAFA, certificate and continuing education programs (what years?) 2001 Group exhibition: 138th Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Pa., March 25 – April 29, 2001. Awarded Second Award By 2002 until c. 2014 Works at Blick Art Supply store, Philadelphia 2005 An undated artist statement from this time states: “My inspiration for this series came from the work of the nineteenth-century painter, George Catlin, who painted portraits of the American Indians. My portraits serve to commemorate the “tribe” of contemporary creative youth. Most of the studies were painted from life, originally using transparent and opaque watercolors, and in the past five years the series began to include oil studies on panels. In the watercolor paintings, the forms emerge from multiple layers of color, which have an intensity and a luminosity equal to oil painting on canvas, but demands the additional challenge of maintaining the integrity of the paper’s fragile surface. My oil studies, consisting of many layers of oil glazes over an under-painting, approach a look more like the oil paintings of Catlin that had originally inspired me, but these studies seem to have an additional intense almost icon-like quality.” 2008 Peter Weiermair, editor, Treasures of Gay Art from the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, (All Saints Press, 2008). Resting, 1982, gouache on paper, 44 x 30 inches, Founders’ purchase, 2004.1222.0002, reproduced in color p. 50; Swimmer, 1984, gouache on board, 63.75 x 44 inches, gift of George Dudley, 1994.1222.0001, reproduced in color p. 51 2015 Kevin Clarke, The Art of Looking: The Life and Treasures of Collector Charles Leslie, (Berlin: Bruno Gmünder, 2015), Swimmer reproduced in color p. 182 2017 He moves from his home at 18XX Catherine Street, Philadelphia, to the WaterMark. In January 2018 he is moved to Wyncote House, Pa., an Alzheimer’s care facility. Six works acquired by PAFA. Philadelphia, Pa., Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Recent Acquisitions, summer 2017. Stephan Salisbury, “PAFA’s 32 New Works,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, July 11, 2017, pp. C-1 and C-6. SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2020 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (July 9 - ), Willliam Way Community Center (July 10 - ), and Woodmere Art Museum (July 16 – October 20), Gilbert Lewis 2004 New York, N.Y., Leslie Lohman Foundation, Gilbert Lewis: Becoming Men • Doug Gruse, “Gilbert Lewis,” Philadelphia Gay News, April 9-15, 2004, pp. 25, 27 and 32; BECOMING MEN: Portrait Paintings by Gilbert Lewis, March 9 – April 17, 2004 127-B Prince Street, (Text from Becoming Men: Portrait Paintings by Gilbert Lewis by Christian Bain, in issue 12 of The ARCHIVE) BECOMING MEN: Portrait Paintings by Gilbert Lewis By Christian Bain Philadelphia artist Gilbert Lewis inspires superlatives. What other artist has been compared to Eakins (whose student was Lewis’ teacher) and Titian in the same Art Matters review, or anywhere else for that matter? Gilbert is also an artist who focuses on the beginning and end of adulthood. During the almost 20 years he worked in a nursing home he painted portraits of elderly patients by day and of young men at night. “One of my motivations in painting has been to celebrate the beginning of adulthood for the young and the final period of life for the old,” Gilbert observes. “What struck me is that both young men and the old are ignored by society. Despite our ostensible focus on youth, young men are in a sort of nether world, no longer teenagers and yet not full adults. They’re in transition with no established identity and no real place in society. “A nursing home is basically an orphanage for elderly adults. It’s a place where people don’t really have their families anymore and visiting relatives and the staff constantly tell them what to do and don’t stop to hear what they have to say. When I was with them doing their portraits we were one on one and we were free to talk about whatever they wanted, with assurance that it would remain confidential. They often told me things even their children didn’t know. “What they had in common with the young men who modeled for me is that they could talk and know that someone was listening. My good fortune was that my young models really appreciated the fact that an adult person was actually there for them and not telling them what to do. I never gave them explicit instructions other than to tell them where to sit or stand. I let them decide how they would do it–I took the queue from each model. “Both the young men and elderly people who sat for me had a sense of trust because I listened to them and didn’t run away. Some of the young models would bring CDs or tapes of their favorite music to play while we sat. “I always painted from live models in gouache, watercolor or oil. The portraits were always completed while the model was still sitting: I only touched up the backgrounds, but never the figures.
“I wish that the exhibition could have colored strings connecting the young men who modeled for me with the models who recommended them and the friends they recommended in turn. It would make a very interesting story.” 1994 Philadelphia, Pa., Rosenfeld Gallery, Gilbert Lewis: watercolors & gouache paintings, April 10 – May 1, 1994, Man in Gray Shirt, 1992, watercolor, 16 x 20 inches, reproduced in color on the postcard. Review: Edward J. Sozanski, “Art. Nudes done dispassionately and romantically, Two very different approaches,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Friday, April 15, 1994, Study watercolor, reproduced. [Bruce Samuelson ‘s exhibition also reviewed] c. 1990 Educational Testing Services, Gilbert Lewis, ten works (checklist): 1- Left Profile; 2- Dancer (Woodmere Art Museum); 3- Studious; 4- Wrestler (collection of Bill Scott); 5. Untitled Portrait; 6. Man in Red and Blue; 7 Man in Blue Sweater; 8- Student; 9- Young Artist; 10- Man with Intense Gaze 1988 Philadelphia, Pa., Gross McCleaf Gallery, Gilbert Lewis: Paintings and Drawings, October 19 – November 5, 1988. Review:s Victoria Donohoe, “On galleries,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Saturday, October 29, 1988, p. 5-D.; Jeanne Nugent, “Pennsylvania: Gilbert Lewis,” New Art Examiner, January 1989, pp. 52-53. Study [reclining nude male...
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1980s Realist Paintings

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Realist paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist 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 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, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Michael Budden, Su Yu, Olga Antonova, and Mark Hunter. 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 paintings, so small editions measuring 0.5 inches across are also available.

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