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Realist 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
All Aboard, Monaco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of Friends boarding a riva boat in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is an estate stamped...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slim Aarons 'Sunbathing In Burgenstock'
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons Sunbathing In Burgenstock 1955 C print estate edition of 150 Lilian Hanson, sunbathing by a pool at the Brgenstock Resort in Can...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Marbella House Party, Spain, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests at a party at the home of Sebastiano Bergese in Marbella, Spain. This is an estate...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Nicely Coiffed, France, Estate Edition, Cityscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s urban photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a poodle entering a barber shop on a street in Deauville, Normandy, France. This is an estate sta...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Catch Up By the Pool Estate Edition, Modernist Architecture, Palm Springs
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Palm Springs, 1970: This coveted photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features midcentury socialites in front of the turquoise swimming pool of the iconic Kaufma...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slim Aarons, Estate Edition, Self Portrait with Cigarette in Capri, 1960s
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Photographer Slim Aarons (right) on board a yacht off Capri, Italy, September 1968. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Poolside In Kenya, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a woman sitting at the edge of a swimming pool in Kenya, December 1958. This is an estate...
Category

1950s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

All Aboard, Monaco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of Friends boarding a riva boat in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is an estate stamped...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Elizabeth Campbell Parks, New York, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Elizabeth Campbell Parks and Leslie, her daughter with the photographer and filmmaker Gor...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slim Aarons 'Cannes Sports' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1958: Holidaymakers water-skiing in front of the Carlton Hotel, Cannes. 'Cannes Sports' Carlton Hotel, Cannes, France Chromogenic Lambda print Printed Later Slim Aarons Estate Editi...
Category

1950s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

SS Queen Of Bermuda, Bermuda, Estate Edition, Maritime Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1950s maritime photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the British ocean liner 'SS Queen of Bermuda' in Hamilton Harbour, Bermuda. This is an es...
Category

1950s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Early Historical Colored Architectural Photograph of New Mexico Museum of Art
Located in Houston, TX
Early historical colored photograph of the New Mexico Museum of Art located in Santa Fe, NM. The work highlights the building's architecture which was create...
Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Pop and Society, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1968: From left to right; singer Marianne Faithfull, the Honorable Desmond Guinness and Mick Jagger (of the Rolling Stones) sit on a sofa under a large gilt framed painting of a woma...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Dining Al Fresco On Capri, Estate Edition
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 ...
Category

1980s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Skiing in Gstaad, Switzerland, 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 Photography

Materials

Lambda

Waterfall at Rose Hall, Estate Edition, Jamaica
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A woman combing her hair by a waterfall at Rose Hall, Jamaica, December 1971. Visual description: A tanned white woman smiles and combs her long brown hair by a waterfall at Rose H...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Andros Island, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1950s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a family enjoying a quiet beach on Andros Island. This is an estate stamped and hand num...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

All Aboard, Monaco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of Friends boarding a riva boat in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is an estate stamped...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Californian Party, San Francisco, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1990s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Belgian born actress Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993) socialising at a party in San Francisco. This is an estate stamp...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slim Aarons 'Marbella Pool' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Laura Hawk, assistant to the Slim Aarons, relaxes by the pool at El Rincon, the von Pantz's Marbella home, September 1st, 1985. Slim Aarons Marbella Pool Chromogenic Lambda print Printed Later Slim Aarons Estate Edition Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. Stamped and hand numbered by the Slim Aarons Estate. Certificate of Authenticity included. Additional sizes offered: 40 x 60 inches $3950 30 x 40 inches $3350 20 x 30 inches $3000 24 x 20 inches $2500 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). * Internal: Vintage Marbella, Vintage Bathing...
Category

1980s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slender Pines (Hand-printed cyanotype, 24 x 15 inches)
Located in Oakland, CA
Brand-new addition to the Foggy Woods Collection of forests in northern California near San Francisco. New as of May 14, 2024. This is a hand-printed contact photograph using the ant...
Category

2010s Realist Photography

Materials

Paper, Archival Paper, Rag Paper, Photogram

1920s Silver Gelatin Print by Tina Modotti of a Diego Rivera Fresco
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a Diego Rivera fresco in the Secretariat of Education in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo is stamped “Photogra...
Category

1920s Realist Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Andros Island, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features some friends preparing for a day snorkelling by Andros Island, Bahamas. This is an estate ...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

David Nightingale Hicks
Located in Los Angeles, CA
April 1970—Interior designer David Nightingale Hicks (1929 - 1998) on Windermere Island in the Bahamas. David Nightingale Hicks Slim Aarons Es...
Category

1970s Realist 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 Photography

Materials

Lambda

Gordon C. MacKenzie, New Hampshire, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the race driver Gordon C. MacKenzie in Franconia, New Hampshire. This is an estate stampe...
Category

1950s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Harbour Island, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
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...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Black and White Seascape of Los Angeles Crashing Wave, Contemporary Photograph
Located in Barcelona, ES
This is an exclusive limited edition black and white giclée print, on 100% cotton Hahnemühle Photo Rag Fine Art matte paper. This series of black and white photographs captures the ...
Category

2010s Realist Photography

Materials

Rag Paper, Archival Pigment

Late Afternoon Forest Light, Black & White Landscape Limited Giiclée Print
Located in Barcelona, ES
This is an exclusive limited edition black and white Giclée print, on 100% cotton Hahnemühle Photo Rag Fine Art matte paper. This beautiful black and white high contrast photograph...
Category

2010s Realist Photography

Materials

Emulsion, C Print, Rag Paper

Photographic print, hand signed and inscribed by Helen Frankenthaler, framed
Located in New York, NY
Helen Frankenthaler Hand signed and inscribed photograph, ca. 1987 Photograph printed on offset lithograph Hand signed and inscribed by Helen Frankenthaler on the front Frame Include...
Category

1980s Realist Photography

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Nicely Coiffed, France, Estate Edition, Cityscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s urban photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a poodle entering a barber shop on a street in Deauville, Normandy, France. This is an estate sta...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Poolside Party, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests by the pool at Nelda Linsk's desert house in Palm Springs, January 1970. The house was designed by Richard Neutra for Edgar J. Kaufmann. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certific...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Untitled (Lower West Side)
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original gelatin silver print by American social documentary photographer Milton Rogovin depicting a resident of Buffalo's West Side in the early 1970's. This work is hand signed ...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Skiing in Gstaad, Switzerland, 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 Photography

Materials

Lambda

Gordon C. MacKenzie, New Hampshire, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the race driver Gordon C. MacKenzie in Franconia, New Hampshire. This is an estate stampe...
Category

1950s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

A Colourful Crew, Bermuda, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970 portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of colourfully dressed friends on board the Calypso clothing store owned boat, Bermuda. ...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Black and White Misty Sailboat Journey, Regatta Seascape, Mediterranean Coast
Located in Barcelona, ES
This is an exclusive limited edition black and white giclée print, on 100% cotton Hahnemühle Photo Rag Fine Art matte paper. This series of black and white photographs captures the raw power and beauty of the ocean and other bodies of water. The images showcase a range of seascapes, from calm and serene to tumultuous and chaotic. Waves are a prominent feature in many of the photographs, with their sharp edges and frothy white caps creating a sense of energy and movement. Other photographs in the series explore the more subtle aspects of the sea, such as the gentle ripples that form on the surface of the water, or the abstract reflections of sunlight and moonlight over the moving surface of the sea. The print measures 24 x 36 inches total, with an image size of 20 x 32 in. and a 2 inch surrounding white border. Details: + Title: Misty Sailboat...
Category

2010s Realist Photography

Materials

Rag Paper, Archival Pigment

Cat in the Shadows - Black and White Photo by Carmel Artist Peter McArthur
Located in Soquel, CA
Black and white photo of a cat on a gravel road by Peter McArthur (American, b. 1947). In the top portion of the composition, a cat sits in the shadows of a gravel road. The exposure of the photograph perfectly captures the texture of the gravel, the delicate highlights on the cat, and the deep shadows in the background. Signed "Peter McArthur" in the lower right corner. Presented in a white mat. Image size: 9.25"H x 6.25"W Mat size: 16"H x 13"W Peter McArthur (American, b. 1947) is a long time Carmel Valley resident specializing in Black and white landscape photography. He is also one of very few artists in the country that hand make frames for his work from scratch. McArthur has been photographing in black and white since...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Sarah Marson Williams, Barbados, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Sarah Marson Williams enjoying a cocktail on the beach at the Hilton Hotel, Needhams Point,...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

A Colourful Crew, Bermuda, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970 portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of colourfully dressed friends on board the Calypso clothing store owned boat, Bermuda. ...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

1920's Silver Gelatin Print by Tina Modotti of Diego Rivera Fresco
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, that shows a fresco in the Secretariat of Education Buiilding, Mexico City that illustrates a popular ballad. Ph...
Category

1920s Realist Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

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 Photography

Materials

Lambda

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Estate Edition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A chairlift up the mountain in Cortina d'Ampezzo, February 1962. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate Col...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Ocean Force, Photography by Pico Garcez
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Pico Garcez (b.1963, São Paulo, Brazil) In Love with Photography, Iconography and Painting, exercises his gaze from childhood when he began to play with his first camera. Practicing ...
Category

2010s Realist Photography

Materials

Cotton, Archival Paper, Inkjet, Archival Pigment

"Morning, Ayers Rock", Black & White Australia Landscape Photograph
Located in Soquel, CA
Behold nature's stunning beauty in this black & white hand signed landscape photograph of beautiful Ayers Rock in Australia, showcasing the elegant curvatur...
Category

1980s Realist Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Biblioteca S. Francisco, Lima
Located in New York, NY
Massimo Listri is a Florence-based photographer whose work often presents interiors of great architectural and cultural importance, some open to the public, others not easily accessi...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Photography

Materials

C Print

Sarah Marson Williams, Barbados, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Sarah Marson Williams enjoying a cocktail on the beach at the Hilton Hotel, Needhams Point,...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Edward Weston's Desk, Black and White Photograph, Wild Cat Hill
Located in Soquel, CA
Black and white photograph of Edward Weston's desk, by Kim Weston (American, b. 1953). This photograph was taken in the former home of Edward Weston, Kim We...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin, Black and White

Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

The St. Regis, New York, Estate Edition, Event Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s event photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an aerial view of diners at the St. Regis, New York. This is an estate stamped and hand numbe...
Category

1950s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Nicely Coiffed, France, Estate Edition, Cityscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s urban photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a poodle entering a barber shop on a street in Deauville, Normandy, France. This is an estate sta...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Skiing in Stowe, Vermont, Estate Edition, Winter Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Skiing in Stowe, Vermont, Estate Edition, Winter Landscape Photograph This 1960s winter landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two women in kni...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Nicely Coiffed, France, Estate Edition, Cityscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s urban photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a poodle entering a barber shop on a street in Deauville, Normandy, France. This is an estate sta...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Caleta Beach, Acapulco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a couple walking on Caleta Beach holding hands, Acapulco, Mexico, 1968. This is an esta...
Category

1960s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

All Aboard, Monaco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of Friends boarding a riva boat in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is an estate stamped...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

All Aboard, Monaco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of Friends boarding a riva boat in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is an estate stamped...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Eden Rock, Estate Edition, Bay of St. Jean in the Caribbean island of St. Barts
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The mansion of Remy de Haenen on a peninsula in the bay of St. Jean at Eden Rock on the Caribbean island of St Barts (Saint-Barthelemy), March 1973. The house is now a hotel Slim Aa...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Slim Aarons 'Hôtel du Cap, Eden-Roc Pool' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Slim Aarons' 1976 photograph of bathers at the Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc in Antibes, France, is a masterful capture of vintage glamour and the epitome of Mediterranean elegance. This ic...
Category

1970s Realist Photography

Materials

Lambda

Realist photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist 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 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, red, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Slim Aarons, Pico Garcez, Kind of Cyan, and Massimo Listri. 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 photography, so small editions measuring 3.94 inches across are also available. Prices for 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 $105 and tops out at $75,000, while the average work sells for $3,000.

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