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Realist Paintings

7,046 Results
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
“Bruyères en fleurs” 1949, 20th Century oil on canvas by William Didier-Pouget
“Bruyères en fleurs” 1949, 20th Century oil on canvas by William Didier-Pouget

“Bruyères en fleurs” 1949, 20th Century oil on canvas by William Didier-Pouget

By William Didier-Pouget

Located in Madrid, ES

WILLIAM DIDIER - POUGET French, 1864 - 1959 BRUYÈRES EN FLEURS signed and dated “Didier-Pouget / 1949” (lower right) inscribed, located and signed ““Le Malin dans la vallée du Lot.”...

Category

1940s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

ArchiParis: Quai du Louvre by Guillaume Chansarel, Work on Paper, Paris View
ArchiParis: Quai du Louvre by Guillaume Chansarel, Work on Paper, Paris View

ArchiParis: Quai du Louvre by Guillaume Chansarel, Work on Paper, Paris View

By Guillaume Chansarel (Guiyome)

Located in Paris, FR

ArchiParis – Quai du Louvre is a drawing by contemporary French artist Guillaume Chansarel. This drawing depicts Quai du Louvre; a quay along the Seine in Paris, in the 1st arrondiss...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

India Ink, Acrylic, Washi Paper

Rooster . original painting
Rooster . original painting

Rooster . original painting

By Alina O'Dwyer

Located in Zofingen, AG

This artwork stands out remarkably and captures attention. It is a nostalgic tribute to my childhood memories at the summer house. Those early mornings when the sun rose and I intend...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pomegranates
Pomegranates

Pomegranates

By Elena Khokhryakova

Located in Zofingen, AG

This work is a meditative exploration of texture and color, where the pomegranate emerges as a symbol of life, abundance, and inner strength. Its glistening seeds, rendered in contra...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Life Magazine Satirical Society Cartoon Illustration
Life Magazine Satirical Society Cartoon Illustration

Life Magazine Satirical Society Cartoon Illustration

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Barbara Shermund (1899-1978). Society Satirical Cartoon, ca. 1940s. Gouache on heavy illustration paper, image measures 17 x 14 inches; 23 x 20 inches in matting. Signed lower left. Very good condition but matting panel should be replaced. Unframed. Provenance: Ethel Maud Mott Herman, artist (1883-1984), West Orange NJ. For two decades, she drew almost 600 cartoons for The New Yorker with female characters that commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony. In the mid-1920s, Harold Ross, the founder of a new magazine called The New Yorker, was looking for cartoonists who could create sardonic, highbrow illustrations accompanied by witty captions that would function as social critiques. He found that talent in Barbara Shermund. For about two decades, until the 1940s, Shermund helped Ross and his first art editor, Rea Irvin, realize their vision by contributing almost 600 cartoons and sassy captions with a fresh, feminist voice. Her cartoons commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony, using female characters who critiqued the patriarchy and celebrated speakeasies, cafes, spunky women and leisure. They spoke directly to flapper women of the era who defied convention with a new sense of political, social and economic independence. “Shermund’s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so,” Caitlin A. McGurk wrote in 2020 for the Art Students League. In one Shermund cartoon, published in The New Yorker in 1928, two forlorn women sit and chat on couches. “Yeah,” one says, “I guess the best thing to do is to just get married and forget about love.” “While for many, the idea of a New Yorker cartoon conjures a highbrow, dry non sequitur — often more alienating than familiar — Shermund’s cartoons are the antithesis,” wrote McGurk, who is an associate curator and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “They are about human nature, relationships, youth and age.” (McGurk is writing a book about Shermund. And yet by the 1940s and ’50s, as America’s postwar focus shifted to domestic life, Shermund’s feminist voice and cool critique of society fell out of vogue. Her last cartoon appeared in The New Yorker in 1944, and much of her life and career after that remains unclear. No major newspaper wrote about her death in 1978 — The New York Times was on strike then, along with The Daily News and The New York Post — and her ashes sat in a New Jersey funeral...

Category

1940s Realist Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Early 20th Century English Floral Still Life -- Cascading Yellow Tea Roses
Early 20th Century English Floral Still Life -- Cascading Yellow Tea Roses

Early 20th Century English Floral Still Life -- Cascading Yellow Tea Roses

Located in Soquel, CA

Elegant Early 20th Century Floral Still Life of Cascading Yellow Hybrid Tea Roses Realistic early 20th Century floral still life by L. Griffin (English, 19th/20th century), 1904. Fe...

Category

Early 1900s Realist Paintings

Materials

Linen, Cardboard

"Evening Glow" (2025) Original Oil Painting, Landscape with Cows
"Evening Glow" (2025) Original Oil Painting, Landscape with Cows

"Evening Glow" (2025) Original Oil Painting, Landscape with Cows

By Emma Kalff

Located in Denver, CO

"Evening Glow" by Emma Kalff (United States) is a handmade landscape oil painting depicting two cows in a pastoral landscape at dusk. This piece is framed and ready to hang. Emma Ka...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Waterfront Haven, Oil Painting
Waterfront Haven, Oil Painting

Waterfront Haven, Oil Painting

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
A bird sanctuary in a suburban area of Denver catches the last rays of the evening sun. Warm light filters through the trees surrounding a pond, highlighting ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid-century Portrait Painting of a Black Woman
Mid-century Portrait Painting of a Black Woman

Mid-century Portrait Painting of a Black Woman

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Beautiful portrait of an African-American woman, ca. 1965-70. Ink on mulberry kozo paper, sheet measuring 9.5 x 14 inches. Original damaged matting depicted here to corroborate age...

Category

1960s Realist Paintings

Materials

Ink, Mulberry Paper

Oh, Those New Mexico Sunsets
Oh, Those New Mexico Sunsets

Oh, Those New Mexico Sunsets

By Jean LeGassick

Located in Pasadena, CA

Provenance Acquired by the gallery directly from the artist UNFRAMED: 6" x 12" FRAMED: 9.875" x 15.875" x 1.375" Artist Statement “In a vast horizontal stretch of land open to sky...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Panel

Serenity at Dawn - beautiful misty morning at a River in the English Countryside
Serenity at Dawn - beautiful misty morning at a River in the English Countryside

Serenity at Dawn - beautiful misty morning at a River in the English Countryside

By Spencer Coleman

Located in Preston, GB

Serenity at Dawn - a beautiful misty morning at a River in the English Countryside by 20th Century British Artist, Spencer Coleman. Unique Vintage Original, Oil on Canvas, Signed. A...

Category

1990s Realist Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Cotton, Paint, Cotton Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil

"Yayoi Kusama Sea"
"Yayoi Kusama Sea"

"Yayoi Kusama Sea"

By Kyrylo Bondarenko

Located in Edinburgh, GB

Painting series: "Academism is Dead!" I take dry and boring academic drawings and transform them into vibrant contemporary art. I create magic and emotion with paint. By purcha...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Seashell Safe and Sound - #207, Original painting, shell, sea
Seashell Safe and Sound - #207, Original painting, shell, sea

Seashell Safe and Sound - #207, Original painting, shell, sea

Located in Deddington, GB

Seashell Safe and Sound - #207 Part of Pete Underhill's Niche Elements Series. A single seashell rests within a weathered painted niche, its pale, curving form contrasting with the h...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Metal

Forest Landscape in Scandinavia with Silver Birch Trees by Danish Artist
Forest Landscape in Scandinavia with Silver Birch Trees by Danish Artist

Forest Landscape in Scandinavia with Silver Birch Trees by Danish Artist

By Jens Christian Bennedsen

Located in Preston, GB

Forest Landscape in Scandinavia with Silver Birch Trees by Danish Artist, Jens Christian Bennedsen (1893-1967) Art measures 12 x 10 inches Frame measures 16 x 14 inches This charm...

Category

Early 20th Century Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paint, Cotton Canvas, Oil

"Octopus"
"Octopus"

"Octopus"

By Anastasiia Grygorieva

Located in Edinburgh, GB

“Octopus” is the final, twelfth painting in the series “The Pathos of Bureaucracy” — a bitterly ironic full stop rather than a silent ending. The octopus is an allegory of a corrupt ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rainy city
Rainy city

Rainy city

By Ihar Sviancicki

Located in Zofingen, AG

Original oil painting on canvas, cityskape painting made under natural light. This artwork is painted using high-quality fine cotton canvas and. Signed on the front and back of artwo...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'View of Lake Como', Northern Italian Landscape
'View of Lake Como', Northern Italian Landscape

'View of Lake Como', Northern Italian Landscape

By Frank Catano

Located in Santa Cruz, CA

A delicate gouache landscape showing a view of a Renaissance villa overlooking calm blue waters of Lake Como, Italy. Signed lower right, 'F. Catano', (Italian, 19th century); inscri...

Category

1980s Realist Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Fear of Pointed Objects (Aichmophobia)

Fear of Pointed Objects (Aichmophobia)

By Vera Barnett

Located in Dallas, TX

Vera Barnett has taken on a range of themes in her works, producing series of paintings inspired by phobias (as in this painting), famous artworks, and the written word. Barnett’s...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

"Fire Starter" Oil Painting by Karen Offut, Male Portrait
"Fire Starter" Oil Painting by Karen Offut, Male Portrait

"Fire Starter" Oil Painting by Karen Offut, Male Portrait

By Karen Offutt

Located in Denver, CO

Karen Offutt's (US based) "Fire Starter" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a male portrait with his face in profile wearing a fur coat in a cold winter landscape. Th...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Radomysl. Sunset Winter Landscape
Radomysl. Sunset Winter Landscape

Radomysl. Sunset Winter Landscape

By Elena Khokhryakova

Located in Zofingen, AG

This painting is part of the series Winter Silence of Radomysl, inspired by the historic landscapes surrounding Radomysl Castle in Ukraine. Bathed in the soft glow of winter light, ...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"European genre painting"
"European genre painting"

"European genre painting"

Located in Edinburgh, GB

No Signatured This evocative 19th-century oil painting presents a tranquil yet atmospheric riverside scene, capturing a group of figures engaged in daily life. The composition is mas...

Category

19th Century Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Nocturne"
"Nocturne"

"Nocturne"

Located in Edinburgh, GB

Memories of the good things: sweet, warm and lovely!

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

But it was foggy at dawn
But it was foggy at dawn

But it was foggy at dawn

By Juan Álvarez Cebrián

Located in CAMPO REAL, ES

This large-format painting captures a winter scene where water tanks mysteriously emerge from a dense fog. During a morning walk, the landscape translates almost into black and white...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

Rushmore, Oil Painting
Rushmore, Oil Painting

Rushmore, Oil Painting

By Nick Savides

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
The painting draws inspiration from a corner of Chelsea featuring the Empire Diner and Eduardo Kobra's mural, "Mount Rushmore of Art." Partially hidden by trees...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

Fishing Boat in Safe Harbour - #206, Original painting, boat, sea
Fishing Boat in Safe Harbour - #206, Original painting, boat, sea

Fishing Boat in Safe Harbour - #206, Original painting, boat, sea

Located in Deddington, GB

Fishing Boat in Safe Harbour - #206 Part of Pete Underhill's Niche Elements Series. A small vintage wooden boat, complete with tin sail, sits beneath a quintet of stars. The scene is...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Metal

Ponte Alle Grazie, 1900-1910, by Antonietta Brandeis, Florence, Italy Painting
Ponte Alle Grazie, 1900-1910, by Antonietta Brandeis, Florence, Italy Painting

Ponte Alle Grazie, 1900-1910, by Antonietta Brandeis, Florence, Italy Painting

By Antonietta Brandeis

Located in Grand Rapids, MI

Antonieta Brandeis (Czech/Italian, 1848-1926) Signed: A. Brandeis (Lower, Right) " Ponte Alle Grazie ", Florence, Circa 1900-1910 Oil on Canvas 16 1/8" x 20" Housed in a 5" Gold...

Category

19th Century Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Summer Sunrise
Summer Sunrise

Summer Sunrise

By Scott Yeager

Located in Colorado Springs, CO

Original Oil Painting signed by the Artist in the lower left corner.

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

What the rose tell me
What the rose tell me

What the rose tell me

By Irina Trushkova

Located in Zofingen, AG

"Roses" is a painting that pays homage to the natural beauty and timeless elegance of this luxurious flower. Painted with great precision and a keen eye for detail, this work exudes ...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Jacqueline” Oil on Canvas ( 48 x 48 )
“Jacqueline” Oil on Canvas ( 48 x 48 )

“Jacqueline” Oil on Canvas ( 48 x 48 )

By Christina Major

Located in West Palm Beach, FL

Christina Major was born in Concord, New Hampshire in 1982. She currently resides in North Carolina. Major earned her MFA from Florida Atlantic University and has exhibited throughou...

Category

2010s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

Cuore Della Casa, Original Painting
Cuore Della Casa, Original Painting

Cuore Della Casa, Original Painting

By Art Clark

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
An abandoned cottage with chipped stucco and worn paint reveals the passage of time. Despite the worn, weathered architecture, life persists as vibrant flower...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

19th-Century Portrait of A Woman in A Lace Bonnet
19th-Century Portrait of A Woman in A Lace Bonnet

19th-Century Portrait of A Woman in A Lace Bonnet

Located in San Francisco, CA

The label on the back has faded with time, but it appears to read “His Great Grandmother’s Portrait presented to George Michael Beauridge on his 18th birthday by his Aunt (?) July 10...

Category

19th Century Realist Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

European Cityscape #5
European Cityscape #5

European Cityscape #5

By Henry Ramirez

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork "European Cityscape" c. 1990 is an oil painting on hard board by Argentinian artist Henry D. Ramirez. It is signed at the lower left corner by the artist. The hard board...

Category

Late 20th Century Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

Honeybrook, PA Lancaster County
Honeybrook, PA Lancaster County

Honeybrook, PA Lancaster County

By David Shevlino

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Beautiful landscape by American artist, David Shevlino (b.1962). Oil on wood panel measures 14 x 15.5 inches. Signed and dated lower right. Signed, titled and dated en verso.

Category

1990s Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Fishing Village, Puttaya, Thailand
Fishing Village, Puttaya, Thailand

Fishing Village, Puttaya, Thailand

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Fishing Village, Puttaya, Thailand" c.1980 is an oil painting with gold addition on canvas by renown Thai artist Kid Kosolawat, 1917...

Category

Late 20th Century Realist Paintings

Materials

Oil

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.