James Priddey
Mid-20th Century Realist Landscape Prints
Lithograph, Board
Mid-20th Century Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor
People Also Browsed
Antique 1830s English William IV Cabinets
Glass, Oak
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Aluminum, Chrome
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
20th Century Danish Modern Office Chairs and Desk Chairs
Leather
Antique 18th Century French Picture Frames
Paper
Vintage 1950s British Posters
Paper
1730s Realist Landscape Prints
Engraving
Vintage 1980s Statues
Bronze
Vintage 1970s American Modern Books
Paper
Late 19th Century Victorian Portrait Prints
Lithograph
Early 20th Century Modern Landscape Prints
Etching
Early 20th Century Modern Landscape Prints
Etching
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1930s American Other Books
Paper
Antique 1890s English Victorian Sterling Silver
Sterling Silver
Early 20th Century Prints
Paper
A Close Look at realist Art
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.
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