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Realist Prints and Multiples

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
Period: 1910s
Antwerp, St Pauls Church, G.C. Haverkamp (1872-1926), Original Etching
Located in Frome, Somerset
G.C. Haverkamp ( 1872-1926) View of Antwerp, Veemarkt with Saint Pauls Church , original signed etching circa 1914. Fine detail etching in good condition . Antique giltwood frame.
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Ink

"Der Maler in der Landschaft" original etching
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original etching. Printed in 1919 and published in Berlin by Paul Cassirer. Plate size: 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches (165 x 110 mm). Not signed.
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Etching

General Wilhelm von Blume - Visionary retrospective -
Located in Berlin, DE
Bernhard Pankok (1872 Münster - 1943 Baierbrunn), General Wilhelm von Blume, 1915, aquatint etching, 34 x 29.5 cm (sheet size), 26 x 22 cm (plate size), signed in the plate at upper left, in pencil at lower right and dated in pencil at lower left. - At lower left old collection stamp, at the right broad margin with a small spot, otherwise very good condition. About the artwork The 1915 aquatint etching of General Wilhelm von Blume is based on a 1912 oil painting in the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster. A second oil portrait of the general by Pankok is in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. When Pankok painted the first oil portrait in 1912, the general had already been retired for 16 years. It is therefore a retrospective portrait. Accordingly, the orientation of his head is such that he is looking back in both the oil painting and the etching. Without fixing on anything in particular, he looks thoughtfully inwards and reflects on his life. Uniformed and highly endowed, it is his military activities in particular that he is reviewing attentively and, as his gaze reveals, quite critically. Pankok has literally written the sum of his experiences on Wilhelm von Blume's face: The physiognomy is a veritable landscape of folds, furrows, ridges and gullies, all the more striking against the flat background. It is clear that each of the medals was also won through suffering. However, by breaking the boundaries of the picture, his bust appears as an unshakable massif, which gives the general a stoic quality. The fact that the design of the portrait was important to Pankok can be seen from the different versions, the present sheet being the third and probably final revision, which Pankok dates precisely to 18 February 1915. Compared with the previous state, the light background now has a dark area against which the sitter's face stands out, the dark background in turn combining with the uniform to create a new tension in the picture. Pankok's taking up of the portrait of the high-ranking military veteran and its graphic reproduction can also be seen in relation to the First World War, which had broken out in the meantime. In the face of modern weapons of mass destruction, Wilhelm von Blume's warfare and military writings were relics of a bygone, more value-oriented era. About the artist After studying at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1889 to 1891 under Heinrich Lauenstein, Adolf Schill, Hugo Crola, and Peter Janssen the Elder, Bernhard Pankok went to Munich in 1892, where he worked primarily as a graphic artist for the two major Jugendstil magazines "Pan" and "Jugend," which established his artistic success. Through this work he met Emil Orlik, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. In 1897, he exhibited his first furniture, and in 1898, together with Richard Riemerschmid, Bruno Paul and Hermann Obrist...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Etching

"Une rue a Nuremberg" original etching
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original etching. Catalogue reference: Sanchez and Seydoux 1912-10. Published in Paris in 1912 for Gazette des Beaux-Arts. This is a fine impression printed in sepia ink on c...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Etching

"Un coin a Bruges" original etching
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original etching. Catalogue reference: Sanchez and Seydoux 1910-7. Printed in Paris and published in 1910 by Gazette des Beaux Arts. Plate size: 8 1/4 x 6 inches (210 x 155 m...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Etching

A J Meyer Etching Dulwich College London c. 1920 British School print
Located in London, GB
To see our other views of Public Schools, Oxford and Cambridge, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller" - or send us a message if you cannot find the view you want. A J Meyer (British, fl 1900-1930) Dulwich College Etching 22x30cm Sadly little is known of Meyer, an accomplished artist and particularly producer of etchings. He was one of many artists to join the craze for etchings started by Whistler and that died out after the 1929 Wall Street...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Etching

L'eglise de Villeneuve sur Bellot, Seine-et-Marn
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: August Lepere – French (1849-1918) Title: L'eglise de Villeneuve sur Bellot, Seine-et-Marn Year: 1915 Publisher: Edmond Sagot (blindstamp, lower ...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Etching

Haarlem
Located in New York, NY
James McBey (1883-1959), Haarlem, etching, 1910, signed in ink bottom right margin and numbered XXXV bottom left [also signed, titled and dated July 1910 in the plate]. Reference: Hardie and Carter 61, only state, edition of 40, 4 3/4 x 6 7/16, the sheet 6 1/4 x 8 inches. Printed on old laid paper, with a partial crest watermark, with margins. In good condition, a paper loss upper right corner (away from image), slight soiling in margins, archival mounting. A fine impression, with a light veil of plate tone. At the age of 26 McBey left his bank job (which he had had for 15 years!) and traveled to Holland, where from July to September of 1910 he created a number of etchings depicting the Dutch landscape. McBey had studied Rembrandt’s prints, and the influence of the Master is evident in etchings such as Haarlem; Haarlem also is reminiscent of Whistler’s Thames etchings...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Etching

Le Bourg de Batz
Located in New York, NY
William Strang (1859-1921), Le Bourg de Batz, etching and drypoint on copper, 1913, signed in pencil lower right [also signed and dated in the plate]. Refere...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Drypoint, Etching

Tightrope Dancer
Located in New York, NY
ROYDS, Mabel Allington. Tightrope Dancer, ca 1911. Color woodcut. MB 1. From a small edition. Signed and titled in pencil. After working with Walter Sickert in Paris at the turn ...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Woodcut

Bather - Original Handsigned Etching - 50 copies - 1911
Located in Paris, FR
Louis LEGRAND (1863-1951) Bather, 1911 Original drypoint etching Pencil signed bottom right (also plate signed on the right) Numbered 38/50 Bearing G Pellet editor stamp On vellum ...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Etching, Drypoint

La Fumee du Bateau
Located in New York, NY
Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1924), La Fumee du Bateau, color etching and drypoint, 1911, signed and numbered in pencil lower right. Reference: Delteil 98. In very good condition, ...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

Rainy Night in Rome
Located in New York, NY
Muirhead Bone (1876-1953), Rainy Night in Rome, drypoint, 1913,signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “Trial Proof” lower left margin. Reference: Dodgson 299, first state (of 10), a total of 125 impressions were printed in all 10 states. In very good condition, with margins (deckle edges bottom and right irregularly trimmed, the slightest toning), 12 x 8 7/8 inches, the sheet 15 3/4 x 11 inches. Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York (with their stock number a11101). A fine rich impression, printed with a brownish/black ink, with substantial burr and carefully wiped plate tone lightening the center of the composition, printed on a cream wove paper. A trial proof aside from the 48 impressions in this state. As described by Dodgson, the ground at the bottom right is blank to a height of 10 mm in this state, but the foreground of the composition is in fact darkened with plate tone. Rainy Night in Rome is one of Bone’s great iconic images. It shows the church San Girolamo...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Drypoint

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Located in New York, NY
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

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Etching

Benachie
Located in New York, NY
James McBey (1883-1959), Benachie, etching, 1911, signed in ink lower right and numbered XXVII lower left [also signed and dated in the plate lower right]. Reference: Hardie 90, only...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Etching

St. Andrews Castle, Fife
By Hedley Fitton
Located in New York, NY
Hedley Fitton (1859-1929), St. Andrews Castle, Fife, c. 1910, etching, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower right]. In good condi...
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Etching

Guinea Hens
By Martin E. Philipp
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1910s Realist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Woodcut

Realist prints and multiples for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist prints and multiples 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 prints and multiples 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, orange, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Daniel Pollera, Luigi Kasimir, Peter Doig, and John Harris (painter). Frequently made by artists working with Etching, and Lithograph 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 prints and multiples, so small editions measuring 0.5 inches across are also available. Prices for prints and multiples 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 $50 and tops out at $72,120, while the average work sells for $793.

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