Gustave Courbet «Study of a Nude Man» 1840s

Gustave Le Gray "Cloudy Sky, Mediterranean Sea" 1857

Gustave Courbet "Paintings" 1848-72

Gustave Le Gray "Seascape with a Ship Leaving Port" 1857

Gustave Caillebotte "The Yellow Fields at Gennevilliers" 1884

Gustave Doré «Les Saltimbanques» 1874

Gustave Courbet "Deer Running in the Snow" 1857 Courbet Sponsored by Louvre

Gustave Caillebotte «Les Raboteurs de Parquet» 1875

Gustave Courbet "Portrait of Jo" 1866 Courbet

Realism Movement in mid- to late 19th-century art, in which an attempt was made to create objective representations of the external world based on the impartial observation of contemporary life. Realism was consciously democratic, including in its subject-matter and audience activities and social classes previously considered unworthy of representation in high art. The most coherent development of Realism was in French painting, where it centred on the work of Gustave Courbet, who used the word réalisme as the title for a manifesto that accompanied an exhibition of his works in 1855. Though its influence extended into the 20th century its later manifestations are usually labelled as Social Realism.