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Realist Portrait Photography

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
La Concha Clientele
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the La Concha Beach Club, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is prou...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Pope Paul VI, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pope Paul VI (1897-1978) delivering a sermon during his visit to Venice, Italy, in October 1972. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity in...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Commander Whitehead
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Commander Edward Whitehead (1908 - 1978), the public face of Schweppes, leans on a silver Rolls Royce at Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, April 1974. Commander Whitehead served in ...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Lech Ice Bar, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Ice Bar at the Hotel Krone in Lech, Austria, 1960. The mountain in the background is the Omershorn. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered an...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

La Concha Beach Club
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A view of La Concha Beach Club, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is proud to...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Saks Fifth Avenue, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A young woman modelling an outfit for a Saks Fifth Avenue catalog shoot, circa 1955. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Sl...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Down To The Pool
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A group of women going down the the steps to the pool at Warren Avis' villa, 'La Barranca' at Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico, April 1979. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer,...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Champagne by the Pool, Palm Springs, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970 portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Former fashion model Helen Dzo Dzo (in white crochet, left) talking to a guest by the pool at Ne...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Armando's Beach Club
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Sunbathers at Armando's Beach Club, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1975. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is pro...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Mustique, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
March 1973: Linda Ashland relaxes in a beach hammock on the island of Mustique in the Grenadines. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stam...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Nice Pool, Estate Edition, Villa Artemis, Palm Beach
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Step into the world of casual elegance and midcentury glamour with Slim Aarons' evocative photograph, "Nice Pool" This image offers a mesmerizing glimpse into the opulent life of Ame...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Dmitris Kritsas at the Temple to Poseidon, Sounion, Greece, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Dimitris Kritsas, a fashionable young couturier, poses among the gleaming Doric columns of the temple to Poseidon at Sounion, 1967 48 x 48 inches $4500 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 3...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Gloria Schiff And Consuelo Crespi, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pilar Crespi and her sister, Italian countess Consuelo Crespi (1928-2010) in Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, Italy, in August 1968. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticit...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Apres Ski, Lounging in Gstaad, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Mrs Alfredo Cernadas reclines on a balcony in Gstaad, 1977. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate Collecto...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Ladies Of Lyford Cay
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Grace, Mrs Dauphinot, Marina Posson and Baroness Meriel de Posson in Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, April 1974. 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 30 inches $3350 24 x 24 inches $3000 ...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Palm Springs Life, Palm Springs, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970 portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Nelda Linsk (left, in yellow), wife of art dealer Joseph Linsk with guests by the pool at the Li...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Saint-Tropez
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Holidaymakers on the deck of yacht in Saint-Tropez, France, August 1971. 40 x 60 inches $3950 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 10 x 12 inches $1350 Complimentary dealer...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Beauty and the Beast
Located in New York, NY
Lady Daphne Cameron (Mrs George Cameron) on a tiger skin rug in the trophy room at socialite Laddie Sanford's home in Palm Beach, Florida. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition o...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Capote Cycling, Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Slim Aarons Capote Cycling Slim Aarons Estate Edition 1970: Truman Capote (1924 - 1984) on his bicycle in Palm Springs, California. Author of several novels including 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' which was made into a film. 40 x 60 inches $3950 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 10 x 12 inches $1350 Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. 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 Literary photography, vintage writers, vintage glamour, vintage breakfast at...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Skaal House In Stowe, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The glass-fronted triangular Skaal House, lit up at night, in the Stowe Mountain ski resort in Stowe, Vermont, 1962. A pair of skis leaning against the wal...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Acapulco Lunch
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A long afternoon lunch at Acapulco. Among the guest are (from left to right) film star Douglas Fairbanks Junior (1909 - 2000), couturiers Oscar de la Renta, and standing behind him E...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Acapulco Pool
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Architect Arturo Pani and his wife by their swimming pool at home in Acapulco, Mexico. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is proud to o...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Hotel Excelsior, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The beach front of the luxurious Excelsior Hotel on the Venice Lido, 1957. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons ...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Las Brisas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The coastline near Warren Avis' villa in Las Brisas, Acapulco, January 1978. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this v...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

On the Sugarbush Slopes, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Stockbroker A Albert Sack Jr playing backgammon with Betsy Pickering on a polar bear rug at his chalet at the Sugarbush Mountain ski resort in in Warren...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Saint-Tropez
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Holidaymakers on the deck of yacht in Saint-Tropez, France, August 1971. 40 x 60 inches $3950 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 10 x 12 inches $1350 Complimentary dealer...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Skiing Waitress, Vermont, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ski 'bum' Alice Clement, a waitress and dishwasher at Stowe, Vermont when not on the slope...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Abercorns On Windermere
Located in Los Angeles, CA
James and Alexandra Hamilton, the 5th Duke and Duchess of Abercorn holiday on Windermere Island in the Bahamas, with their children Sophia and James, April 1980. 40 x 60 inches $395...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Beach Backgammon, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy, 1957. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aar...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Amalfi Coast, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Windsurfing on the waters off the Amalfi Coast, Italy, in September 1978. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons E...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Lord Lichfield, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
British photographer Lord Lichfield holding a Hasselblad camera. On his arm is Marina Lante della Rovere, to the left is Ines Torlonia, and reclining is...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slim Aarons, "Poolside in Arizona" (Midcentury Architecture, Vintage Desert)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
'Poolside In Arizona' by Slim Aarons Fabulously fashionable guests by the calm water of the swimming pool at the home of Wayne Beal in Scottsdale,...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Tres Vidas, Acapulco
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests relax in the shade at the Tres Vidas private members club, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1975. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Top People's Eatery, San Francisco, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Journalist Lucius Beebe beside a gold place setting in t...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Harbour Island
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Harbour Island in the Bahamas, 1970. 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 20 x 24 inches $2500 10 x 12 inches $1350 Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide....
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Lech Ice Bar, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A bartender mixes a drink for a customer at the Ice Bar at the Hotel Krone in Lech, Austria, 1960. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and sta...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Winter Suntans, Gstaad, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s group portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features young women enjoy a relaxing sunbathe in snowy Gstaad. This is an estate stamped a...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Harbour Island
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Harbour Island in the Bahamas, 1970. 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 20 x 24 inches $2500 10 x 12 inches $1350 Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide....
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

French Bath
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Joyce Pallardy relaxes at the Villa Macopa, the home of Mrs Andre Hammel in St Tropez, August 1977. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects i...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Party In Bermuda, Estate Edition, (1970 on the Yacht Ondine in yellow and red)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Slim Aarons's iconic photograph of 70's vintage socialite and party glamour, captured onboard the wood-trimmed deck of the yacht 'Ondine' in Bermuda, ...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Villa Nirvana
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the Villa Nirvana, owned by Oscar Obregon, in Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects ...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Harbour Island
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Harbour Island in the Bahamas, 1970. 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 20 x 24 inches $2500 10 x 12 inches $1350 Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide....
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Porto Ercole, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Private boats in Porto Ercole, Tuscany, August 1980. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim A...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Hamilton Hostess
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Mrs George Davenport Aldrich and dogs on the lawn of her estate in Hamilton, Massachusetts, circa 1960. 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 30 inches $3350 24 x 24 inches $3000 Complimenta...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Table Hopping
Located in Los Angeles, CA
circa 1959: Senator Jack Kennedy (President John F Kennedy) greeting old friends at an 'April in Paris' ball held in the Waldorf's Grand Ballroom, New Yor...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Commander Whitehead
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Commander Edward Whitehead (1908 - 1978), the public face of Schweppes, leans on a silver Rolls Royce at Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, April 1974. Commander Whitehead served in ...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Abercorns On Windermere
Located in Los Angeles, CA
James and Alexandra Hamilton, the 5th Duke and Duchess of Abercorn holiday on Windermere Island in the Bahamas, with their children Sophia and James, April 1980. 40 x 60 inches $395...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Ice Bar, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Ice Bar at the Hotel Krone in the Austrian ski resort of Lech, February 1979. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim A...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Waiting in the Shade, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A woman shelters under a parasol on a beach on the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, 1967. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

On the Slopes in Stowe, Estate Edition (Snowscape, Vintage Skaal House, Vermont)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Five people relaxing on the terrace of the glass-fronted triangular Skaal House in the Stowe Mountain ski resort in Stowe, Vermont, 1962. The property is owned by Doris Molliel, who ...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Habitation Leclerc
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Bathers walking down steps to the swimming pool at Habitation Leclerc, Haiti, January 1975. They are followed by a waiter with cocktails. Complimentary dealer shipping to your frame...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Ladies Of Lyford Cay
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Grace, Mrs Dauphinot, Marina Posson and Baroness Meriel de Posson in Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, April 1974. 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 30 inches $3350 24 x 24 inches $3000 ...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Ladies Of Lyford Cay
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Grace, Mrs Dauphinot, Marina Posson and Baroness Meriel de Posson in Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, April 1974. 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 30 inches $3350 24 x 24 inches $3000 ...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Hotel Punta Tragara, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, Italy, August 1974. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Governing Couple
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Nancy Reagan and her husband film star and Governor of California, Ronald Reagan (later the 40th President of the USA) in Acapulco, mexico. Complimentary dealer shipping to your fr...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Piazza Umberto, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Aerial view of a parasols shading customers at cafes and restaurants in the Piazza Umberto, on the island of Capri, Italy, in August 1980. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate o...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Swimmers At Las Brisas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests in the pool at the Las Brisas Hotel, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this v...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Governing Couple
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Nancy Reagan and her husband film star and Governor of California, Ronald Reagan (later the 40th President of the USA) in Acapulco, mexico. Complimentary dealer shipping to your fr...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, Leonard Dalsemer Villa, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Leonard Dalsemer and his family at their villa in Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, April 1974. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is p...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Tres Vidas, Acapulco
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests relax in the shade at the Tres Vidas private members club, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1975. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Realist portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist portrait photography 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 portrait photography 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, pink, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Slim Aarons, Bob Willoughby, Mitchell Funk, and Milton Rogovin. Frequently made by artists working with Digital Print, and Lambda Print 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 portrait photography, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $380 and tops out at $75,000, while the average work sells for $3,000.

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