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Realist Art

15,089 Results
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
Sailing regatta., Painting, Oil on Canvas
Sailing regatta., Painting, Oil on Canvas

Sailing regatta., Painting, Oil on Canvas

By Iryna Kastsova

Located in Yardley, PA

Sailing regatta. Sailboats sail under the midday sun, the light is reflected from the canvas of the sail and passing clouds, the ocean, a serene view, creates an atmosphere of relaxation, harmony and bliss. Realism. The work of the palette knife knife...

Category

2010s Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Golden Gate Strait, San Francisco
Golden Gate Strait, San Francisco

Golden Gate Strait, San Francisco

By Alexander V. Orlov

Located in Pasadena, CA

Provenance Acquired by the gallery directly from the artist Signed "Al. Orlov" on lower left. UNFRAMED: 18" x 24" FRAMED: 25.5" x 31.5" x 1.5"

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Panel

"Nantucket"
"Nantucket"

"Nantucket"

By Paul Crosthwaite

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Signed Lower Left Paul Crosthwaite (1911 - 1981) Paul Crosthwaite was a respected member of the New Hope art community. He was born in Pelham Manor, New York and after studying in architecture for two years decided upon a career as an artist. With that in mind he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York City studying under John Sloan, Raphael Soyer, Yasuo Kunioshi and Morris Kantor. In the mid-thirties he and artist John Sharp...

Category

20th Century Realist Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

"Ex Nihilo Fragment 6", Frederick Hart, Figurative Bronze Sculpture, 39X23X12 in
"Ex Nihilo Fragment 6", Frederick Hart, Figurative Bronze Sculpture, 39X23X12 in

"Ex Nihilo Fragment 6", Frederick Hart, Figurative Bronze Sculpture, 39X23X12 in

By Frederick Hart

Located in Dallas, TX

"Ex Nihilo Fragment 6" by Frederick Hart is a figurative bronze with the edition of 55/65. Ex Nihilo Fragment No. 6, detail from the full-scale plaster for the final stone sculpture of Ex Nihilo, was commissioned as part of The Creation Sculptures at Washington National Cathedral...

Category

Early 2000s Realist Art

Materials

Bronze

Rainbow Over Capitola Village, Santa Cruz - Colored Photograph
Rainbow Over Capitola Village, Santa Cruz - Colored Photograph

Rainbow Over Capitola Village, Santa Cruz - Colored Photograph

Located in Soquel, CA

Rainbow Over Capitola Village, Santa Cruz - Colored Photograph Color photograph of a rainbow shining over Capitola Village in Santa Cruz, California by John F. Hunter (American, 20t...

Category

Early 2000s Realist Art

Materials

Ink, Photographic Paper

Seascape Venice Oil Painting by Michael Budden Romantic Couple in a Gondola
Seascape Venice Oil Painting by Michael Budden Romantic Couple in a Gondola

Seascape Venice Oil Painting by Michael Budden Romantic Couple in a Gondola

By Michael Budden

Located in Chesterfield, NJ

Reflections Of Venice oil/canvas 30 x 24 unframed, 35.75 x 29.50 framed signed LR Reflections of Venice is an oil painting on canvas by award winning contemporary artist Michael Budd...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Fountain of the Virgin, Nazareth

Fountain of the Virgin, Nazareth

By David Roberts

Located in London, GB

First Edition and Subscription Edition lithographs available Half plate: 29 Presented in a acid free mount Modern hand-coloured lithograph for the first edition of David Roberts' Th...

Category

1840s Realist Art

Materials

Laid Paper, Lithograph

Sea, 1980. Cardboard, oil, 56x68 cm
Sea, 1980. Cardboard, oil, 56x68 cm

Sea, 1980. Cardboard, oil, 56x68 cm

Located in Riga, LV

Painter, art teacher Valters Uzticis was born on 19 July 1914 in Daugavpils into a family of labourers. From 1932 to 1936 he studied at the Liepāja Art Secondary School. In 1943 he graduated from the master workshop of figurative painting of Professor Ludolfs Liberts...

Category

1980s Realist Art

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

0ctopus Bronze by Sophie Martin 3/8
0ctopus Bronze by Sophie Martin 3/8

0ctopus Bronze by Sophie Martin 3/8

By Sophie Martin

Located in Pasadena, CA

Animal sculptor Sophie MARTIN creates from inert clay a whole living animal kingdom. She freely observes the animal and captures and interprets a movement; and places it in nature an...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Bronze

Grandad Chair, Great Aunt Color Theory
Grandad Chair, Great Aunt Color Theory

Grandad Chair, Great Aunt Color Theory

By Justin Allen

Located in Columbia, MO

Justin Allen Springfield, MO Justin Allen brings extraordinary technical mastery to oil painting, rendering everyday objects with precision so striking they verge on the surreal. A...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

Venice II
Venice II

Venice II

By Juan Álvarez Cebrián

Located in CAMPO REAL, ES

I painted this view of the Venice canal on a foggy gray morning, playing with the chromaticism of the scene to alter the colors and create a special luminosity. I used soft tones to ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Linen, Oil

Still Life with Fruit in Basket - Vintage Oil in Ornate Frame by British Artist
Still Life with Fruit in Basket - Vintage Oil in Ornate Frame by British Artist

Still Life with Fruit in Basket - Vintage Oil in Ornate Frame by British Artist

By Roy Hodrien

Located in Preston, GB

Still Life with Fruit in Basket - Vintage Oil in Ornate Frame by British Artist Art measures 12 x 10 inches Frame measures 18.5 x 16.5 inches Roy Hodrien, born in Lancashire in M...

Category

1980s Realist Art

Materials

Paint, Oil, Board

Proud Peacock
Proud Peacock

Proud Peacock

By Ezra Tucker

Located in Colorado Springs, CO

Original Acrylic painting signed by the Artist on the lower left corner.

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Acrylic

Parisian Café Eiffel Tower Paris France Limited Edition Print by British Artist
Parisian Café Eiffel Tower Paris France Limited Edition Print by British Artist

Parisian Café Eiffel Tower Paris France Limited Edition Print by British Artist

By Angela Wakefield

Located in Preston, GB

Parisian Café Eiffel Tower Paris France Limited Edition Print by British Artist. A high quality limited edition print of Angela's European Series, incorporating the Eiffel Tower - on...

Category

2010s Realist Art

Materials

Paper, Printer's Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Giclée

BENAVENT ROCOMORA Spanish painter night landscape fire 19th
BENAVENT ROCOMORA Spanish painter night landscape fire 19th

BENAVENT ROCOMORA Spanish painter night landscape fire 19th

Located in PARIS, FR

Cayetano BENAVENT ROCAMORA Reus, 1834 - Barcelona, ​​1910 Oil on cardboard 18.5 x 25.5 cm (29 x 34 cm with the frame) Signed lower right “Cayentano Benavent” Nice old frame Cayentan...

Category

19th Century Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Winter Landscape
Winter Landscape

Winter Landscape

By Hans Figura

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist: Hans Figura (Austrian, 1898-1978) Title: Winter Landscape Year: Circa 1950 Medium: Color etching with aquatint on silk Edition: Unknown Plate mark (Image) size: 17.25 x 13.75 inches Framed size: 23 x 19.5 inches Signature: Hand signed in pencil by the artist Condition: very good Frame: Custom framed in a silver and gold frame About the artist. Hans Figura (Austrian, 1898-1978) was a noted painter and etcher, who was well known for his aquatint etchings on paper or satin of European and American landscape and cityscape scenes, as well as paintings of landscape and cityscape scenes, Tyrolean Alp scenes of villages and chalets, street scenes, harbor and marine scenes. Hans Figura was born January 22, 1898, in the small town of Nagy-Kikinda near the Austro-Hungarian border, to Austrian parents. His father was a railway official and he spent his childhood in various small villages along the railway line between Vienna and Hungary. He graduated from the highschool in Vienna and also studied at the Higher Graphical Federal Education and Research Institute, a vocational school there (Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr und Versuchsanstalt) As a young man, he served as an officer in the Austrian Army during WWI from 1916-18 on the Russian and Italian fronts. After the war he attended medical school at the University of Vienna for several years beginning in 1918, and seven semesters later, he passed his first state exam, but eventually decided that he preferred the arts to medicine. He also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) and by 1922 he had devoted himself to painting and etching, while also working in other artistic printing mediums, batik, illustration, bookbinding and working with leather. From 1923-28, Figura made numerous art study trips throughout Europe including; Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, England, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. His first major success came in 1924, when he won acclaim for his etchings exhibited in Italy and the United States. In 1929, he visited the United States and in 1930, he traveled back to France, Holland and also Switzerland. During this time, Figura maintained studios in both New York City and Vienna, Austria. Throughout the course of his career, he exhibited his paintings and prints in many of the large cities throughout Europe and the United States and many of his etchings and paintings were acquired by museums and galleries, including The Kulturamt, Vienna, Austria; the Landesmuseum of Lower Austria; as well as The Society of Art Lovers, Berlin and Munich. Select Exhibitions: 1924- Exhibitions in Italy and the United States. Circa Mid 1920's-1939- All the exhibitions at the Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria. 1926- "Secession...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Art

Materials

Etching

Chinese Contemporary Art by Su Yu - Mickey and Donald Duck
Chinese Contemporary Art by Su Yu - Mickey and Donald Duck

Chinese Contemporary Art by Su Yu - Mickey and Donald Duck

By Su Yu

Located in Paris, IDF

Ink on paper Su Yu is a Chinese artist born in 1987 who lives & works in Beijing in China. He was an old student of prestigious art teachers as Shi Liang & Chen Danqing at Oil Paint...

Category

2010s Realist Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

Golden sunset, Painting, Oil on Canvas
Golden sunset, Painting, Oil on Canvas

Golden sunset, Painting, Oil on Canvas

By Iryna Kastsova

Located in Yardley, PA

Golden sunset over the ocean. During my travels I study a lot of the sea and the ocean. Then in the workshop I again plunge into a state of admiration for the elements of the sea and...

Category

2010s Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Coronaleader JB, Painting, Oil on MDF Panel
Coronaleader JB, Painting, Oil on MDF Panel

Coronaleader JB, Painting, Oil on MDF Panel

By Victor Tarres

Located in Yardley, PA

A portrait of Brazil'spresident, Jair Bolsonaro vested in unusual garments. :: Painting :: Realism :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by the arti...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Apple tree - XX Century, Contemporary Figuratie Watercolor Painting, Dog, Animal
Apple tree - XX Century, Contemporary Figuratie Watercolor Painting, Dog, Animal

Apple tree - XX Century, Contemporary Figuratie Watercolor Painting, Dog, Animal

By Stanislaw Sobolewski

Located in Warsaw, PL

Stanislaw Sobolewski (born in 1952) Studied philology at the Jagiellonian University (1971-1976) and painting under prof. Zbigniew Grzybowski at the Academy of Fine Arts (1974-1979)....

Category

1990s Realist Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Keble College Chapel, watercolour by David Garland
Keble College Chapel, watercolour by David Garland

Keble College Chapel, watercolour by David Garland

Located in London, GB

David Garland (b.1941) Keble College Chapel Watercolour 28 x 38 cm This richly coloured watercolour was painted by David Garland for the 1971 edition of the 'Oxford Almanack.' Th...

Category

1970s Realist Art

Materials

Watercolor

W.C. Nowell, "Cherries in Crystal Bowl", 28x36 Fruit Still Life Oil Painting
W.C. Nowell, "Cherries in Crystal Bowl", 28x36 Fruit Still Life Oil Painting

W.C. Nowell, "Cherries in Crystal Bowl", 28x36 Fruit Still Life Oil Painting

Located in Saratoga Springs, NY

This fruit still life, "Cherries in Crystal Bowl", by artist W.C. Nowell is a 28x36 oil painting on canvas featuring a crystal bowl of bright red cherries with fallen cherries also on the table surrounding the bowl. The background is a soft blue. About the Artist: W.C. Nowell, a well known still life specialist, began his artistic training at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston before pursuing an apprenticeship with the Boston School artists. For four years, Nowell engaged in the kind of academic training that has passed down from French 19th century painters...

Category

2010s Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Clare Bridge, watercolour by Mark McCrum
Clare Bridge, watercolour by Mark McCrum

Clare Bridge, watercolour by Mark McCrum

Located in London, GB

Mark McCrum Clare Bridge Watercolour 29 x 39 cm Signed and dated to lower right Mark McCrum, born in Cambridge, England, is a distinguished author and artist known for his diverse...

Category

1980s Realist Art

Materials

Watercolor

Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Signpost''
Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Signpost''

Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Signpost''

By Slim Aarons

Located in New York, NY

Slim Aarons Bahamas Signpost 1964 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. A signpost in Nassau points the way to...

Category

1960s Realist Art

Materials

Lambda

Elephants, Painting, Oil on Canvas
Elephants, Painting, Oil on Canvas

Elephants, Painting, Oil on Canvas

By Valeria Radzievska

Located in Yardley, PA

A pair of elephants hugging. Strong marriage, love, feelings, fidelity, trust. Such manifestations of conjugal love, which can sometimes be seen in the animal world, are impressive. ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Still life with tulips, Painting, Oil on Canvas
Still life with tulips, Painting, Oil on Canvas

Still life with tulips, Painting, Oil on Canvas

Located in Yardley, PA

Still life painting of tulips painted on stretched linen. The painting is framed and ready to hang and ready to ship. :: Painting :: Realism :: This piece comes with an official cer...

Category

2010s Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Small Modern Grey and Red Toned Embroidered Portrait of a Woman
Small Modern Grey and Red Toned Embroidered Portrait of a Woman

Small Modern Grey and Red Toned Embroidered Portrait of a Woman

Located in Houston, TX

Realistic brown and red toned intricately embroidered portrait of a woman in Hollywood glam style. Work is unsigned. Framed in a thick black wooden frame. Dimensions Without Frame: ...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Art

Materials

Thread

A girl II - XXI century, Contemporary Realistic Figurative Mixed Media Drawing
A girl II - XXI century, Contemporary Realistic Figurative Mixed Media Drawing

A girl II - XXI century, Contemporary Realistic Figurative Mixed Media Drawing

By Andrzej Szypluk

Located in Warsaw, PL

Contemporary realistic figurative mixed media drawing PROVENANCE Exhibited at Katarzyna Napiorkowska Gallery. The Gallery is a primary representative for this artist. The Gallery o...

Category

Early 2000s Realist Art

Materials

Chalk, Pastel, Pencil, Cardboard

Won't Be There

Won't Be There

By Justin Allen

Located in Columbia, MO

Born in Jefferson City Missouri in 1976 Justin Allen attended Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri where he studied filmmaking before studying painting at the Art Students Leagu...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

Morning on the Bay, Painting, Oil on Canvas

Morning on the Bay, Painting, Oil on Canvas

By Mark Hunter

Located in Yardley, PA

Sailboats at anchor on a Barnegat Bay morning. :: Painting :: Realism :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by the artist :: Ready to Hang: No :: Si...

Category

2010s Realist Art

Materials

Oil

Realist art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist art 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 art 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, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Slim Aarons, Michael Budden, Daniel Pollera, and Su Yu. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint 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 art, so small editions measuring 0.1 inches across are also available.