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
Oberon's Lunch
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
circa 1966: Film star Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979) and lunch guests at her villa, La Consentida, Acapulco. The star is second from the right facing the camera. A Wonderful Time - Slim ...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Villa Vera
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The bar at the Villa Vera Hotel Spa and Racquet Club in Acapulco, January 1968.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer thi...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Edna Lewis, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A restaurant in Positano, Italy, 1958. One of the woman is art director Edna Lewis.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Sli...
Category
1950s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Governing Couple
By Slim Aarons
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
La Concha Clientele
By Slim Aarons
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
Lunch At Merle's
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
English actress Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979, second from right) and lunch guests at her villa, La Consentida, Acapulco, 1966.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Las Brisas
By Slim Aarons
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
Gloria Schiff
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Gloria Schiff, the twin sister of Consuelo Crespi, with her pet dog and pet birds at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas.
40 x 40 inches
$3950
30 x 30 inches
$3350
24 x 24 inches
$3000
Com...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
On The Slopes Of Sugarbush, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Two skiers inspecting their skis on the slopes of the Sugarbush Mountain ski resort in Warren, Vermont, United States, April 1960.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authen...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Habitation Leclerc
By Slim Aarons
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
Ice Bar in Lech, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Customers at the Ice Bar at the Hotel Krone in Lech, Austria, 1960.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate
C...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Racquet Club Pool
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Swiss bandleader and restaurateur Teddy Stauffer (1909 - 1991) with Dorothy Webb and Mrs Charles Rogers in the pool at the Villa Vera Spa & Racquet Club p...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Acapulco Pool
By Slim Aarons
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
Oberon's Lunch
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
circa 1966: Film star Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979) and lunch guests at her villa, La Consentida, Acapulco. The star is second from the right facing the camera. A Wonderful Time - Slim ...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Top People's Eatery
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Journalist Lucius Beebe beside a gold place setting in the glass-roofed Garden Court of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. His walking stick once bel...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Villa Vera
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The bar at the Villa Vera Hotel Spa and Racquet Club in Acapulco, January 1968.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer thi...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
In Vogue
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Vogue magazine editor Topsy Taylor, a visitor to Acapulco, circa 1966.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibrant...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
C.Z. Guest With Her Great Dane, Palm Beach (Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
C.Z. Guest, 1955: The American socialite with a Great Dane at her ocean-front estate, Villa Artemis, in Palm Beach, Florida, 1955
Slim Aarons
C.Z. Guest With Her Great Dane, 1955
La...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Commander Whitehead
By Slim Aarons
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
Nirvana Quartet
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Oscar Obregon Salazar Gomez Velez Guzman y Murphy (centre, left) with Karen Murphy, Robin Goodland and Melissa Engelhardt at the Villa Nirvana hotel, Acapulco, Mexico, 1986.
Compli...
Category
1980s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Racquet Club Pool
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Swiss bandleader and restaurateur Teddy Stauffer (1909 - 1991) with Dorothy Webb and Mrs Charles Rogers in the pool at the Villa Vera Spa & Racquet Club p...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Peggy Guggenheim
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
September 1978: Peggy Guggenheim (1898 - 1979) in the Palazzo Venier Dei Leoni, Venice. The palace houses her private art collection, including Picasso's 'On the Beach', pictured to ...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Acapulco Pool
By Slim Aarons
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
Pool at Las Brisas, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
An underwater view of the pool at the Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
Slim Aarons
Underwater Drink
Acapulco
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate
Collector will receive the next number in the edition
Modern printing from original transparency
C-type print on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper,
Crisp detail, continuous tone and brilliant color
Paper weight 210gms
Matte Satin Surface
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
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.
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). *
Undercurrent Projects, New York, is proud to represent Aarons' full collection of negatives and transparencies. Housed at Getty Images Hulton Archive in London, 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.
#slimaarons #acapulco. Vintage scene...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Top People's Eatery
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Journalist Lucius Beebe beside a gold place setting in the glass-roofed Garden Court of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. His walking stick once bel...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Governing Couple
By Slim Aarons
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
Hotel Punta Tragara, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
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
Commander Whitehead
By Slim Aarons
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
Portofino Harbour, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The harbour in the Ligurian town of Portofino, August 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
San Vicenzo, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1984, Donna Stefanella Vanni Calvello di San Vicenzo in the Hall of Mirrors at her family's palazzo in Palermo, Sicily. The focal point of Sicilian Belle-Epoque society, this eightee...
Category
1980s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Sports Car Couple, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1955: John Bryant with his AC sports car in Kinnerton Place, London SW1, Printed Later. His passenger is Margaret McAulay.
40 x 40 inches
$3950
30 x 30 ...
Category
1950s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Nino Cerruti, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
September 1968: Nino Cerruti, fashion designer and perfumer with a model in Capri.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Pope Paul VI, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
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
Olimpia Hruska, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Swedish model Olimpia Hruska, wearing a bikini, poses against a rock on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, Italy, 1964.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity include...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
A Friendly Chat, Estate Edition, Bahamas
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A man wearing diving equipment talks with a girl in a wicker chair on the beach, Bahamas, 1967
Visual Description: A woman seated in a wicker chair i...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
View looking down the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, 1960. Opened in 1890, the covered arcade is on the northern side of ...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Hotel Il San Pietro, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the Hotel Il San Pietro in Positano, Italy, August 1979.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stampe...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Monocled Miss, Estate Edition (German model Renata Boeck in 1960s New York)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
German fashion model Renata Boeck (wearing a monocle) enjoying breakfast in bed at the Regency Hotel in New York, 1964. She is wearing a black monocle and a fur-lined turquoise robe as she reads the morning paper, propped up against sumptuous yellow pillows. Morning light pours through the sheer curtains...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Marisa Berenson, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
American actress Marisa Berenson sunbathing in Capri, 1968.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by ...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Patrick Lichfield, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
September 1968: Patrick, Earl of Lichfield, with a friend in Capri, Italy.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons ...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Marisa Berenson, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
American actress Marisa Berenson sunbathing in Capri, 1968.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by ...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Positano Beach, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera beach in Positano, Italy, 1979.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Caprice On Capri, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1958: Singer and actress Caprice Chantal (right) on the Italian island of Capri.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aa...
Category
1950s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Lunch At Merle's
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
English actress Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979, second from right) and lunch guests at her villa, La Consentida, Acapulco, 1966.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Private Stage, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1960: Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt (1885 - 1971) sits on the stage of her own private theatre in Rome.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbere...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Villa Nirvana
By Slim Aarons
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
Zermatt Skiing, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Skiers in Zermatt, Switzerland, March 1968.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate
Collector will receive t...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Port Life, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A man stops to watch a young woman tie her sandals on the pavement in Portofino marina, August 1977.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and s...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Beach In Positano, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Aerial view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at Positano, Italy, 1979.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by ...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Beach At Positano, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Aerial view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at Positano, Italy, 1979. The view looks north along the coastline.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Auth...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
A Roman Prince, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
circa 1982: Prince Raimondo Orsini d'Aragona stands in the ancient Roman forum wearing an elegant suit by tailor Savini-Brioni.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authentic...
Category
1980s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Bettina Graziani relaxes in a hammock on the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, 1964.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Number...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Bettina Graziani relaxes in a hammock on the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, 1964.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Number...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
View looking down the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, 1960. Opened in 1890, the covered arcade is on the northern side of ...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Helen & Nelda by the Pool, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Former fashion model Helen Dzo Dzo (left) talking to Nelda Linsk, wife of art dealer Joseph Linsk, at the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, California, January 1970.
Slim Aaro...
Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Massimo Family, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1960, Prince and Princess Massimo with five of their six children in their residence, Palazzo Massimo all Colonne, Rome, Italy.
Slim Aarons Estate Ed...
Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, Leonard Dalsemer Villa, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
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
Apres Ski, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
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
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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