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.
Gasthof Post Pool, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests lounging by the indoor swimming pool of the Gasthof Post in Lech, Austria, February 1979. Slim Aarons Gasthof Post Pool Chromogenic Lambda print Printed Later Slim Aarons Est...
Lambda
Empire City Derby Jamaica Racetrack New York City Race Horse Jockey Photographs
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
A pair of antique period prints by American photographer Charles Christian Cook (1873-1957). "Wonderful" and "Bonnie Khayam". ca. 1920's. Platinum prints glued down to backing boa...
Platinum
Slim Aarons, "Poolside in Arizona" (Midcentury Architecture, Vintage Desert)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
'Poolside In Arizona' by Slim Aarons Fabulously fashionable guests by the calm water of the swimming pool at the home of Wayne Beal in Scottsdale,...
Lambda
$1,700
Double Dutch #16: Black girls playing jump rope games in Philadelphia urban city
By Ron Tarver
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This black and white photograph depicts a Black girls' team in the urban city of Philadelphia practicing the art of Double-Dutch jump rope. This series of images provide a snapshot o...
Archival Pigment
Slim Aarons 'Leisure in Antibes' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A woman sunbathing in a motorboat as it tows a waterskiier, in the sea off the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera, August 1969. Leisure in Antibes Hotel du Cap E...
Lambda
Slim Aarons, 'Dolores del Rio, Acapulco' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Mexican film star Dolores Del Rio (1905 - 1983) floating in a swimming pool in Acapulco, 1952. 20 x 20 inches $2500 Estate stamped and hand numbered ...
Lambda
Skiing Waiters, Vermont, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features three skiing waiters on a ski slope, with the man in the foreground carrying a bird on a...
Lambda
Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Truman Photo WWII
Located in Surfside, FL
Potsdam conference meeting depicting Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman on the balcony gelatin silver print, matte finish on photograph, artist's stamp verso, approximately 11" x 15-1/2" sheet, date of printing unknown. Provenance: acquired from the estate of photographer Samariy Gurariy...
Silver Gelatin
"Death Valley" After Ansel Adams - Black & White Landscape Photograph
By Jeff Nixon
Located in Soquel, CA
"Death Valley" After Ansel Adams - Black & White Landscape Photograph Beautiful black and white landscape of Death Valley by Jeff Nixon (American, 1952-2022). Nixon was a student, a...
Paper, Silver Gelatin
Dining In Gstaad, Switzerland, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features holidaymakers at a ski lodge at Gstaad, Switzerland, March 1961. This is an estate stam...
Lambda
Vintage Silver Gelatin Signed Print Old Jew in Jerusalem Pious Craftsman
Located in Surfside, FL
Rare vintage signed and dated silver gelatin black & white framed photograph. This photo is signed but I cannot make out the signature. It is from the aftermath of the six day w...
Silver Gelatin
Snowmass Village, Colorado, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two women stand in the foreground of a snowy landscape with a helicopter on the slopes of...
Lambda
Snowmass Village, Colorado, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two women stand in the foreground of a snowy landscape with a helicopter on the slopes of...
Lambda
Snowmass Village, Colorado, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two women stand in the foreground of a snowy landscape with a helicopter on the slopes of...
Lambda
$6,800Sale Price|20% Off
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 East Side in the early 1960's. This work is hand signed ...
Silver Gelatin
$1,800
Saint-Tropez, France, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features holidaymakers on the deck of a yacht in Saint-Tropez, France. This is an estate-stamped and hand-num...
Lambda
Crossing Snow Field, Switzerland, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a line of sleighs crossing a snow field at St Moritz, Switzerland, March 1963. This is...
Lambda
Lake Tahoe Ladies
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Caption:A group of young women in their bathing suits on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, 1959. Slim Aarons worked mainly for society publications, taking pictures of the rich and fa...
Lambda
On The Slopes Of Sugarbush, Vermont, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photo
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of people relaxing at the chalet of stockbroker A Albert Sack Jr, at the Sugarbus...
Lambda
$3,000
An Original Photograph Sean Scully Pueblo COA Rare Important Mexico coca cola
By Sean Scully
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original C-Print from Sean Scully's Pueblo Dzibalchen series (A Suite of 20) created in 2001. This work comes in a fantastic natural wood archival frame presentation. This series was shot by Scully in Campeche, Mexico. Photograph size: 20 x 24 in. Framed Size: 27.5 x 33.5 Painter, photographer, watercolorist, and printmaker Sean Scully roams the world with his camera, capturing its surfaces in places as far-flung as Mexico and the Aran Islands...
Photographic Paper, C Print
$6,372Sale Price|20% Off
River Landscape - Arun Sussex - British art 1950 landscape oil painting Arundel
Located in Hagley, England
This superb large oil on canvas painting of a river landscape is by British artist William Thomas Wood. Painted in 1950, the river is the Arun near Arundel in Sussex. Wood beautifull...
Oil
Bohemia's Barracks, New York City, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features artistic denizens gathered in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel on W. 23rd Street, Manhattan,...
Lambda
Deauville Casino, France, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an exclusive gambling table at the casino in Deauville, France, 1970. This is an estate stamped and han...
Lambda
Chateau Saint-Martin, Cote d'Azur, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an outdoor luncheon by the swimming pool of the Chateau Saint-Martin, a luxury hotel in Vence on the Co...
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989. A ma...
Lambda
Holiday In Provence, France, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1980s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Jonas Akerman with his wife Lillemor Malmstrom and their children in their villa in Provence, Franc...
Lambda
Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests standing by a white Rolls-Royce convertible courtesy car at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, ...
Lambda
Poolside Pairs, Palm Springs, Estate Edition Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features former fashion model Helen Dzo Dzo Kaptur (in white lace) and Nelda Linsk (in yellow), wife of art deale...
Lambda
Dans le Quartier Hongrois de Mea Shearim, Jerusalem Vintage Silver Gelatin Print
By Frederic Brenner
Located in Surfside, FL
Meah Shearim photograph of Torah scholars. Rabbis in Jerusalem. Photo of Hungarian quarter. Frédéric Brenner (born 1959) is a French photographer known for his documentation of Jewish communities around the world. His work has been exhibited internationally, among others, at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, Rencontres d'Arles in Arles, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam. Brenner was born in Paris and grew up in France. In 1981, Brenner received a B.A. in French Literature and Social Anthropology from the Paris-Sorbonne University. He went on to study at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and received a M.A. in Social Anthropology, also awarded by the Sorbonne. Brenner is the recipient of the Niépce Prize and his book Diaspora: Homelands in Exile won the 2004 Visual Arts Award from the Jewish Book Council. At age 19, Brenner began photographing Orthodox Jews in the Mea Shearim...
Silver Gelatin
Lyford Cay Fire Service, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two people horseback riding at the Rawlins Plantation inn, Saint Kitts and Nevis, West Indi...
Lambda
Lyford Cay Fire Service, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two people horseback riding at the Rawlins Plantation inn, Saint Kitts and Nevis, West Indi...
Lambda
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...
Ink, Photographic Paper
Che (Che Guevara cutting canes)
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Che (Che Guevara cutting cane) 1962 (printed later) is a gelatin silver print by noted Cuban artist Ernesto Fernandez Nogueras, b.1939. It is signed, titled and dated at the lower margin. The photograph size is 10 x 6.5 inches, framed size is 17.85 x 15.85 inches. Custom framed in a black frame, with white matting. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Ernesto Fernandez trained under the tutelage of several established photographers during the 1950s in Havana. He is one of the four great photographers of the Revolutionary period of Cuba. As a young man he witnessed both the excesses of Havana as a “playground” of the USA, and the poverty that produced the hotbed of revolutionary thought and action. He was in the Cuban capital as the revolution reached its climax, and his pictures document a time of great hope. They are celebrations of youth’s ability to bring about change and to reinvent a new world. Alongside Korda, Salas and Corrales, Fernandez documented the heady days of the Triumph of the Revolution and continued to photograph Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other leading lights of the new system, including some wonderfully intimate studies of Alicia Alonso...
Silver Gelatin
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...
Lambda
'Botanical Rhapsody II' Realistic/Abstract Floral Pattern Photograph Blue/White
Located in Wellesley, MA
"Botanical Rhapsody II" by Judith Allen-Efstathiou is an exquisite photographic cyanotype print in deep blue and white of wildflowers abstracted. Highly intricate and lavishly depic...
Mulberry Paper, Photographic Paper
"Mapping the Walk" Realistic/Abstract Photographic Flower Study in Blue / White
Located in Wellesley, MA
"Mapping the Walk" by Judith Allen-Efstathiou is an exquisite cyanotype photographic print on mulberry paper in deep blue and white of wildflowers abstracted. Highly intricate and ...
Mulberry Paper, Photographic Paper
All Aboard, Monaco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
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...
Lambda
Caleta Beach, Acapulco, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
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...
Lambda
Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
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...
Lambda
$1,800
Stocking Island, Bahamas, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s aerial seascape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a high angle view of people swimming next to the ketch 'Traveler II' , Stocking Isla...
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Keep Your Cool' Midcentury Modern Photography - Backgammon
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Carmen Alvarez enjoying a game of backgammon with Frank 'Brandy' Brandstetter in a swimming pool at Acapulco. Keep Your Cool 1978 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of...
Lambda
$4,800
Delphinium: Large Signed Limited Edition Botanical Photograph, purple flowers
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This is a signed, limited edition (of 10) framed botanical photograph of a long Delphinium stalk covered in blue blossoms on a black background. It is printed on a thin, durable alum...
Metal
Alfred Hitchcock and Ina, Hollywood, Harper's Bazaar
Located in New York, NY
Alfred Hitchcock and Ina, Hollywood, Harper's Bazaar, 1962 Gelatin Silver Print image size: 12 x 8 inches print size: 13 x 9 1/2 inches signed in pen recto on lower right; photog...
Silver Gelatin
Zermatt Skiing, Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This midcentury landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the apres-ski in Zermatt, Switzerland, March 1968. In this scene of casual winter glamo...
Lambda
Skiing Princess (Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Princess Luciana Pignatelli on a skiing holiday in Lech, Austria. February 1961 Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. S...
Lambda
$1,800
Water Babe, Mustique, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features 'Town & Country' writer Meg O'Neil relaxes by the pool on the island of Mustique, in the Grenadin...
Lambda
$2,400
Water Babe, Mustique, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features 'Town & Country' writer Meg O'Neil relaxes by the pool on the island of Mustique, in the Grenadin...
Lambda
$3,000
Water Babe, Mustique, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features 'Town & Country' writer Meg O'Neil relaxes by the pool on the island of Mustique, in the Grenadin...
Lambda
Mustique, Grenadines Islands, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Linda Ashland relaxing in a beach hammock on the island of Mustique in the Grenadines. This is an es...
Lambda
Anguilla Beach Resort, Leeward Islands, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photo
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1990s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features holidaymakers on the mile-long crescent beach at the Hotel Cap Jaluca resort, Anguilla, Leeward Islan...
Lambda
Anguilla Beach Resort, Leeward Islands, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photo
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1990s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features holidaymakers on the mile-long crescent beach at the Hotel Cap Jaluca resort, Anguilla, Leeward Islan...
Lambda
Anguilla Beach Resort, Leeward Islands, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photo
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1990s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features holidaymakers on the mile-long crescent beach at the Hotel Cap Jaluca resort, Anguilla, Leeward Islan...
Lambda
Anguilla Beach Resort, Leeward Islands, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photo
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1990s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features holidaymakers on the mile-long crescent beach at the Hotel Cap Jaluca resort, Anguilla, Leeward Islan...
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features French fashion model Bettina Graziani wading in the shallow waters of Costa Smeralda, pulling a small y...
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features French fashion model Bettina Graziani wading in the shallow waters of Costa Smeralda, pulling a small y...
Lambda
$3,600
Water Babe, Mustique, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features 'Town & Country' writer Meg O'Neil relaxes by the pool on the island of Mustique, in the Grenadin...
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features French fashion model Bettina Graziani wading in the shallow waters of Costa Smeralda, pulling a small y...
Lambda
Pebble Beach, Slim Aarons Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Riders from the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center wend their way through the Californian sand dunes and pampas grass, November 1976. Slim Aarons Pebble Beach, Slim Aarons Estate Editio...
Lambda
Lunch At La Pigna, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features US restaurateurs Gilda Cioffi, owner of Mama Gilda in Palm Beach, Guy Avventuiero and his wife, of Gi...
Lambda
Lunch At La Pigna, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features US restaurateurs Gilda Cioffi, owner of Mama Gilda in Palm Beach, Guy Avventuiero and his wife, of Gi...
Lambda