The influence and inheritance of Naturalism is hard to judge even now. Given the dramatic change in painting in the 20th century, its greatest inheritance may be in photography.
realism
A lot changed in painting in the 1890s. Within just a few years, Naturalism went from being all the rage to old hat. These paintings show how.
From physicists to photographers developing their plates, Naturalist painters recorded the science and technology of their time.
After his greatest human panorama showing Paddington railway station, he painted two moralising series, similar to those of Hogarth.
One of very few artists who specialised in painting children’s social interactions in school. Fascinating insights into childhood and society at the time.
Less often painted than the rural poor, Naturalism did show the growing pains of the 19th century cities. Paintings from Lhermitte, Luce, Bellows, and more.
Naturalist painting both supported the State, and attacked it – sometimes so much that works had to be suppressed. The real history of art at the end of the 19th century.
Unlike Impressionism, which spread relatively slowly, Naturalism was prominent in the Salon, so spread across Europe and North America like wildfire.
From their genre roots in the Dutch Golden Age, through Géricault and Courbet, to the social realism of Millet, Manet, and most of all Lhermitte.
The very large Paris Salon of 1883 introduced the public and critics to a new and growing movement in painting. It wasn’t Impressionism or Post-Impressionism, though.
