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.
Vintage David Hockney Poster Gregory Loading His Camera 1983 in millennial pink
Located in New York, NY
This vintage exhibition poster features a David Hockney photographic collage. A young man with a mop of curls wearing brown leather loafers crouches over his camera, reloading its f...
Lithograph
Harriet De Rosiere, France, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Viscountess Harriet de Rosiere at Mougins, near Cannes in France. This is an estate-stamped and hand-n...
Lambda
$1,440Sale Price|20% Off
Signpost In St. Moritz, Switzerland, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photo
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a signpost indicating various ski slopes and toboggan tracks in the resort of St Moritz,...
Lambda
Poolside Catwalk, California, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features former fashion model Helen Dzo Dzo Kaptur (in white lace) and Nelda Linsk (in yellow), wife of art dealer J...
Lambda
Saint-Tropez Beach
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The beach at Saint-Tropez, on the French Riviera, August 1971. 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 20 x 24 inches $2500 10 x 12 inches $1350 Complimentary dealer shipping ...
Lambda
Fan Mail, Beverly Hills, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962), wearing a red negligee trimmed with black lace, sorts out h...
Lambda
Guests At The Hotel Bel-Air, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1990s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests by the swimming pool on a terrace at the Hotel Bel-Air on Cap Ferrat on the Côte d'Azur, so...
Lambda
$2,500
Ride By North Philly Rows: Black African American urban cowboy in Philadelphia
By Ron Tarver
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This photograph of a Black African American cowboy in the urban city of Philadelphia pictured against the city's iconic row homes is part of artist Ron Tarver's long-term, ongoing project, "The Long Ride Home: The Black Cowboy...
Archival Pigment
Five Maiko (Apprentices) Having lunch – Original hand-colored Meiji era photo
Located in Middletown, NY
Yokohama, Japan: c 1890. Hand-tinted albumen print, 8 x 10 1/2 inches (203 x 266 mm), numbered B04 in negative, small spots of fixer on lower right corner, pencil inscription on ver...
Watercolor, Photographic Paper
Guests At The Hotel Bel-Air, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1990s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests by the swimming pool on a terrace at the Hotel Bel-Air on Cap Ferrat on the Côte d'Azur, so...
Lambda
Monte Carlo, Monaco, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features friends boarding a riva boat in Monte Carlo, Monaco, This is an estate stamped and hand n...
Lambda
$2,500
The Basketball Game: Black African American urban cowboys in Philadelphia
By Ron Tarver
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This photograph of a Black African American cowboy in the urban city of Philadelphia pictured with the city's iconic Fletcher Street Urban Riders is part of artist Ron Tarver's long...
Archival Pigment
Bahamas Speed Week, Nassau, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Gordon Butler's Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray at the Bahamas Speed Week at the Oakes Course, Nassau. ...
Lambda
Japan – Three dancing geisha apprentices – Hand-colored Meiji Period photograph
Located in Middletown, NY
Yokohama, Japan: c 1880. Hand-tinted albumen print, 8 1/8 x 10 1/2 inches (205 x 267 mm), numbered 1625 and captioned "Dancing" in negative at lower right; pencil inscription in Jap...
Watercolor, Photographic Paper
Muffy Bancroft, Manhattan, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Mrs. Thomas Bancroft Jnr (Peggy Bancroft) in the foyer of her Manhattan duplex. This is an estate-s...
Lambda
Japan – Geisha Girl with Fan – Hand-colored albumen print
By Baron Raimund von Stillfried
Located in Middletown, NY
Yokohama, Japan: c 1885. Hand-tinted albumen print, 10 1/2 x 8 inches (268 x 204 mm), hand-numbered 1103 in negative. Unmounted; housed in an archival mat with clear mounting corner...
Watercolor, Photographic Paper
Japan – Samurai - Hand-colored Meiji Period photograph
Located in Middletown, NY
Yokohama, Japan: c 1890. Hand-tinted albumen print, 10 1/8 x 7 3/4 inches (258 x 198 mm), numbered B 1161 and captioned in negative at lower right; very light cockling, brightly col...
Watercolor, Photographic Paper
$1,800
Caracalla Therme, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1990s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a woman experiences the Caracalla Therme spa in Baden-Baden, September 1990. This is an estate-stamped ...
Lambda
$3,000
Tres Vidas, Acapulco, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests enjoying cocktails at the pool bar of the Tres Vidas private members club in Acapulco, Mexico...
C Print
$2,400
Bahamas Speed Week, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
$3,000
Race Day Lunch, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
$6,100
Leisure In Antibes, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a woman sunbathing in a motorboat as it tows a waterskiier, in the sea off the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Ro...
Lambda
Lyford Cay Fire Service, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two people horseback riding at the Rawlins Plantation inn, Saint Kitts and Nevis, West Indi...
Lambda
$3,600
Bahamas Speed Week, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
Bahamas Speed Week, Nassau, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Gordon Butler's Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray at the Bahamas Speed Week at the Oakes Course, Nassau. ...
Lambda
Poolside tete a tete, California, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features former fashion model Helen Dzo Dzo Kaptur (in white lace) and other guests at the Kaufmann Desert House ...
Lambda
Mrs. A. Watson Armour III, Illinois, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Mrs. A. Watson Armour III walking with her poodles on her Lake Forest Estate, Illinois, USA. T...
Lambda
$3,600
Bahamas Speed Week, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
$1,800
California Fashion, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Mrs. Anne Ryan (nee Evenson) wearing a sleeveless, two-piece outfit by Maurice Rentner, outside the Bota...
Lambda
$4,200
Race Day Lunch, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
The Bahamas
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A swimming pool, seen through the fronds of a palm tree, with two people swimming and a group of people sitting at tables at the poolside in the Bahamas, May 1967. Beyond the pool is...
Lambda
Japan – A geisha playing the gekkin - Hand-colored Meiji Period photograph
Located in Middletown, NY
Yokohama, Japan: c 1880's. Hand-tinted albumen print, 10 1/8 x 8 inches (258 x 203 mm), unmounted; pencil inscription in Japanese on verso; light cockling [Nagasaki University Libra...
Watercolor, Photographic Paper
$3,900
Harbour Island, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Midcentury Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a couple relaxing at the beach on Harbour Island, Bahamas. This is an estate stamped and...
Lambda
Dining Al Fresco On Capri, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Italian artist and actress Domiziana Giordano, Italian author Francesca Sanvitale (1928 - 2011), Dino Trappetti and Umberto Terrelli dining al fresco ...
Lambda
$3,000
Bahamas Speed Week, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
Roca Llisa, Ibiza, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Fosca, Vera, and Fiona Bertran holidaying in Roca Llisa, on the island of Ibiza, Spain. This is an...
Lambda
Self Portrait on Holiday in Athens, Greece
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Legendary photographer Slim Aarons relaxes in a self portrait shot in Athens, near the Acropolis. Slim Aarons said, "I love a solo holiday. It tends to refresh the part of oneself that is most depleted by modern life — patience. "Let me dispel a few myths. You will be lonely. No: you won’t. My solo travels in Paris have brought many perfect hours of being alone but not a moment of loneliness. People who depend on other people are often in hiding from themselves. Two and a quarter million people live in the City of Light: you will see many of them and you will pass them in the street, but when you see Notre Dame after dark and walk home and perhaps stop to have a drink in the Marais, you can feel that the only thing that is missing from your experience is the common dependency on someone to distract your attention. "I’ve had solo pints of Guinness in the pubs of County Kerry and County Cork. I’ve walked across the sage- and juniper-scented maquis of Corsica on a spring day, where you can still find the world of Napoleon’s childhood. More than once I went to the Isle of Iona in the Scottish Hebrides...
Lambda
Teddy Stauffer In Acapulco, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Swiss bandleader and restaurateur Teddy Stauffer (1909 - 1991) in the swimming pool of Warren Avis...
Lambda
Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, captures an aerial view of the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera. This is an estate-stampe...
Lambda
Vane's Villa, Majorca, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests at Vane Ivanovic's villa in Cap de Formentor, Majorca, Spain. This is an estate-stamped and...
Lambda
Iconic Slim Aarons Estate Edition 'Tania Mallet in the Bahamas'
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1961: Actress Tania Mallet relaxes on a red-curtained four poster in Eleuthera, in the Bahamas. She is best known for her role as the unfortunate Tilly Masterson in the Bond film 'Go...
Lambda
Poolside Service, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a swimming pool at the Lyford Cay Club at Lyford Cay on New Providence Island in the Bahamas, 1962...
Lambda
Venice Walk 1983 Vintage David Hockney Exhibition Poster in turquoise teal
Located in New York, NY
This vintage exhibition poster features a David Hockney photographic collage. Hockney’s keen eye and uncanny ability to capture his subjects’ individuality is evident in this casual...
Lithograph
Island Lookout, Hog Island, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Nattily dressed, W Clifford Klenk with his telescope and his wife, Hope, in their Hog Island house....
Lambda
Anne Anka, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Anne Anka, wife of singer Paul Anka and daughter of Count Charles de Zogheb, with her daughters (lef...
Lambda
Drinks At Gstaad, Switzerland, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1980s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features models from Parisian jeweller M. Gerard enjoying drinks on the terrace of The Palace Hotel in Gstaad...
Lambda
Slim Aarons, 'Beach at St Tropez' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Sunbathers on the beach at St. Tropez, France, 1977. Slim Aarons Beach at St Tropez Slim Aarons Estate Edition Stamped and hand numbered by the Slim Aarons Estate. Certificate of Au...
Lambda
$1,800
Lunch At Bali-li, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Mr. and Mrs. Amos Morrill together with Mrs. Ogden P. Starr having lunch at 'Bali-li' at the Mill Reef C...
Lambda
Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features skiers walking up a mountain in Cortina D'Ampezzo, a ski resort in northern Italy. This is an est...
Lambda
Hello There, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features film star Diana Dors (Diana Fluck) (1931 - 1984) in blonde bombshell pose on a satin-covered bed. T...
Lambda
Beach at St Tropez
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Sunbathers on the beach at St. Tropez, France, 1977. Chromogenic Lambda print Printed Later 40 x 60 inches $3950 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibrant photograph, printed by the Slim Aarons estate. It is part of the estate's only official limited run, of 150. Estate stamp embossed...
Lambda
Japan – Woman in winter outfit with umbrella (background of Mt. Fuji)
Located in Middletown, NY
Yokohama, Japan. Hand-tinted albumen print, 10 1/4 x 8 inches (259 x 201 mm), unmounted; light cockling at corners. [Nagasaki University Library, Catalog Number : 468]. A young wom...
Watercolor, Photographic Paper
Slim Aarons 'Saint-Tropez Boucherie' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A boucherie on Rue des Commercants in Saint-Tropez, on the French Riviera, August 1971. Slim Aarons St-Tropez Boucherie Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. 60 x 40 inches $3950 40 x 30 inches $3350 30 x 20 inches $3000 Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. Chromogenic Lambda print from the original transparency 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. Photograph is unframed Slide show includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp. Collector will get the next number in the edition * We are pleased to offer the entire archive of the Slim Aarons Estate, offering the official Slim Aarons Estate Edition (only offered in this edition of 150). Please contact us for additional photographs from Slim Aarons * Undercurrent Projects offers premium quality photographic prints from the Slim Aarons Archive, owned and housed by Getty Images. All photographs are printed and authorized by the Getty Images Gallery, London. Photographs are printed utilizing the original transparency held at the archive source. Internal: Vintage Saint-Tropez, Vintage French Riviera photography...
Lambda
$1,800
Race Day Lunch, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
$3,600
Race Day Lunch, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
$3,900
Race Day Lunch, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with...
Lambda
Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features skiers walking up a mountain in Cortina D'Ampezzo, a ski resort in northern Italy. This is an est...
Lambda
$1,700
Double Dutch #37: Black girls playing jump rope games in Philadelphia urban city
By Ron Tarver
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This black and white photograph depicts a Black girls' team in the urban city of Philadelphia practicing the art of Double-Dutch jump rope. This series of images provide a snapshot o...
Archival Pigment
Outdoor Dining, California, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features diners at La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, San Diego, California. This is an estate-stamped and hand-num...
Lambda
Lyford Cay Fire Service, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two people horseback riding at the Rawlins Plantation inn, Saint Kitts and Nevis, West Indi...
Lambda