An art movement that flourished in Europe and America from the 1840s to the late 19th century. Realists depicted objective, unsentimental images of contemporary life, including the lives of the working class. These represented a challenge to the idealized style and subject matter of Neoclassical and Romantic art. Web resources here and here.

Gustave Courbet. The Wheat Sifters. Oil on canvas. 1854. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France.