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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
Peggy Guggenheim
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

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

Beach At Positano, Estate Edition
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

Arturo Pani's Villa
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The swimming pool at Arturo Pani's villa, Acapulco, Mexico, January 1968. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibr...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

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

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

Truman Capote, Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Slim Aarons Truman Capote Slim Aarons Estate Edition 1970: Author of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and 'In Cold Blood,' Truman Capote (1924 - 1984) and his dog in Palm Springs, California. 60 x 40 inches $3950 40 x 30 inches $3350 30 x 20 inches $3000 10 x 12 inches $1350 Chromogenic Lambda print Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Estate stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 with a certificate of authenticity from the estate. 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 on recto, hand numbered in ink on recto, with certificate of authenticity from the estate (not a secondary gallery licensing from the estate). 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 tiffanys, in cold blood, vintage truman capote, 9150s, 50s, fifties, Brooklyn author, Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood, author portrait...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Sunbathing in Bermuda, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Sunbathing and swimming at a beach in Bermuda, June 1967. Bathers in colorful vintage swimsuits lounge on a white sandy beach and swim in turquoise w...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Capote At Home, New York, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the author Truman Capote (1924 - 1984) relaxing with a book and a cigarette in his clutter...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Marisa Berenson, Estate Edition
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

Nice Pool, Estate Edition
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

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

Portofino, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Yachts moored in the Italian fishing village of Portofino, circa 1955. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Esta...
Category

1950s 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

By The Pool In Acapulco
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A tanned man surrounded by young women in bikinis by the pool at Warren Avis's villa in Acapulco, Mexico, January 1978. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Un...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Capote At Home, New York, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the author Truman Capote (1924 - 1984) relaxing with a book and a cigarette in his clutter...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Belvedere Pool, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The swimming pool at the Hotel Belvedere, Amalfi, Italy, August 1984. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estat...
Category

1980s 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

Patrick Lichfield, Estate Edition
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

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

Ardizzone's House, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Overlooking Ardizzone's House, on the water's edge in Portofino, Italy, July 1985. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Ardizzone's House, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Overlooking Ardizzone's House, on the water's edge in Portofino, Italy, July 1985. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category

1980s 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

Last-minute Adjustments, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a young woman has last-minute adjustments made to her dress at a debutante ball. This is a...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Last-minute Adjustments, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a young woman has last-minute adjustments made to her dress at a debutante ball. This is a...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Funk In Tuscany, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Italian fashion designer, model and socialite, Marta Marzotto (1931 - 2016), playing a James Brown album on an Italian Brionvega Radiofonograph RR126 stereo system, Porto Ercole, Tus...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Patrick Lichfield, Estate Edition
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

Bettina Graziani, Estate Edition
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

Port Life, Estate Edition
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

Montecatini, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Marie-Louise Scio at the Tettuccio Terme in Montecatini, Italy, June 1980. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons ...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Caprice On Capri, Estate Edition
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

Water Babe, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
February 1989: 'Town & Country' writer Meg O'Neil relaxes by the pool on the island of Mustique, in the Grenadines. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Villa Vera
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

By The Pool In Acapulco
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A tanned man surrounded by young women in bikinis by the pool at Warren Avis's villa in Acapulco, Mexico, January 1978. Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Un...
Category

1970s 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 York. 30 x 40 inches $3350 20...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Skiing In Vail, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A group of skiers stand in line waiting for the ski lift in Vail, Colorado, USA, 1964. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the ...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Nino Cerruti, Estate Edition
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

Portofino Harbour, Estate Edition
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

Villa del Balbianello, Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Lake Como, Italy
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Immerse yourself in the tranquil luxury of Lake Como with this exquisite Slim Aarons photograph featuring Italian mountain climber and explorer Guido Monzino (1928-1988), captured at his Villa del Balbianello...
Category

1980s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Peggy Guggenheim
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

Hibiscus Flowers
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A woman surrounded by red hibiscus flowers in a swimming pool in Acapulco, Mexico, circa 1960. 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 30 inches $3350 24 x 24 inches...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slim Aarons Palm Beach Society (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Jim Kimberly and his wife (far left) and friends with his white sports car and white boats moored on Lake Worth. A Palm Beach socialite, Kimberly acts as Honorary Consul of Jordan. A...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Andros Island, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features (from left to right) Christine Camerana, Caroline Stoop, and Christine Semenenko Warrender...
Category

1970s 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

Mustique Tranquility, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Meg O'Neill, a writer for Town and Country magazine, relaxing by the infinity pool at Colin Tennant's home on the West Indies island of Mustique, February 1989. Slim Aarons Estate E...
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

Capote At Home, New York, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the author Truman Capote (1924 - 1984) relaxing with a book and a cigarette in his clutter...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Capri Cruise, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Princess Laudomia Hercolani (in blue) and friends enjoy an on-deck siesta whilst cruising near Capri, July 1958. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Nu...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Venice Gondolier, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Premium Rates Apply. A gondolier on the Grand Canal in Venice, 1957. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Venice Gondolier, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Premium Rates Apply. A gondolier on the Grand Canal in Venice, 1957. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Tropical Mustique, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
February 1989: Pierre Vincent Marais holidays with friends on the island of Mustique in the Grenadines. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Aut...
Category

1980s 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

Skiing In Stowe, Vermont, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a young woman waiting to go on a ski run in Stowe, Vermont, USA. This is an estate stamp...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Sunbathers at Eden Roc, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Sunbathers at the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc, Antibes, France, August 1969. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estat...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

New York Picnic, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Premium Rates Apply. A chauffeur unpacks a picnic hamper from a Rolls Royce, against the New York skyline. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered...
Category

1950s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Maccioni By His Pool, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Restaurateur Sirio Maccioni at his villa in Montecatini, Italy, July 1991. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons ...
Category

1990s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Beach At Positano, Estate Edition
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

David Bailey, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
September 1968: English photographer David Bailey on the Italian island of Capri. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim ...
Category

1960s 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

Fishing On Honeymoon Porch, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features acouple relaxin on a porch in Exuma, Bahamas. This is an estate stamped and hand numbered ...
Category

1960s 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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