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Realism 

Until the nineteenth century Western art was dominated by the academic theory of History painting and High art (see also Grand manner). Then, the development of Naturalism began to go hand in hand with increasing emphasis on realism of subject, meaning subjects outside the high art tradition. The term Realism was coined by the French novelist Champfleury in the 1840s and in art was exemplified in the work of his friend the painter Courbet. In practice Realist subject matter meant scenes of peasant and working class life, the life of the city streets, cafes and popular entertainments, and an increasing frankness in the treatment of the body and sexual subjects. The term generally implies a certain grittiness of choice of subject. Such subject matter combined with the new naturalism of treatment caused shock among the predominantly upper and middle class audiences for art. Realism is also applied as a stylistic term to forms of sharply focused almost photographic painting irrespective of subject matter, e.g. early Pre-Raphaelite work such as Millais' Ophelia. (See also Modern Realism).
 

Alphonse Legros, Le Repas des Pauvres, 1877
Alphonse Legros
Le Repas des Pauvres
1877
 
Walter Richard Sickert, Minnie Cunningham at the Old Bedford, 1892
Walter Richard Sickert
Minnie Cunningham at the Old Bedford
1892
 
Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1880-1, cast circa 1922
Edgar Degas
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen
1880-1, cast circa 1922