Russian life. Estate, city and village
How nineteenth-century painters depicted work, wealth, education and changes in everyday life.
Realist paintings
Realist paintings of people, work and everyday life. Read painting stories, explore artists’ biographies and find related tours.
Paintings in this selection
134 artworks. Open a painting to read its story and explore its details.
Arkhip KuindzhiAfter the Rain
1879
Pavel FedotovBreakfast of an Aristocrat
1849–1850
Winslow HomerThe Herring Net
1885
Nikolai GePeter I Interrogating Tsarevich Alexei at Peterhof
1871
Winslow HomerCroquet Scene
1866
Vasily PolenovGrandmother’s Garden
1878
George Wesley BellowsLove of Winter
1914
Vasily MaximovAll in the Past
1889
William James GlackensAt Mouquin's
1905
George Caleb BinghamFur Traders Descending the Missouri
1845
Hilaire Germain Edgar DegasThe Millinery Shop
1879-86
Thomas EakinsThe Chess Players
1876
Édouard ManetJesus Mocked by the Soldiers
1865
Thomas EakinsThe Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull)
1871
Édouard ManetThe Races at Longchamp
1866
Thomas EakinsThe Dancing Lesson
1878
Jules BretonThe Song of the Lark
1884
Winslow HomerDressing for the Carnival
1877
Winslow HomerThe Gulf Stream
1899; reworked by 1906
Winslow HomerNortheaster
1895; reworked by 1901
Winslow HomerPrisoners from the Front
1866
Winslow HomerThe Veteran in a New Field
1865
Jules Bastien-LepageJoan of Arc
1879
Thomas HovendenThe Last Moments of John Brown
1882–84A familiar subject can still need explanation. Clothing, surroundings and the arrangement of figures may suggest wealth, occupation or social differences. The stories connect those observations to the painting’s documented circumstances and distinguish them from interpretation.
Artists
- Paul Cezanne
- Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas
- Édouard Manet
- Jules Breton
- Jean Siméon Chardin
- Winslow Homer
- George Wesley Bellows
- William Merritt Chase
- William James Glackens
- Jules Bastien-Lepage
- Rosa Bonheur
- Camille Corot
- Gustave Courbet
- Honoré Daumier
- Jean-François Millet
- George Caleb Bingham
- Thomas Eakins
- Thomas Hovenden
- William Sidney Mount
- Pavel Fedotov
- Nikolai Ge
- Vasily Polenov
- Arkhip Kuindzhi
- Vasily Maximov
- Nikolai Yaroshenko
- Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky
- Grigory Myasoedov
- Vasily Perov
- Vladimir Makovsky
- Nikolai Kasatkin
- Nikolai Dubovskoy
- Boris Kustodiev
- Valentin Serov
- Ilya Repin
- Vasily Surikov
- Ivan Kramskoy
- Viktor Vasnetsov
- Alexei Savrasov
- Ivan Shishkin
- Isaac Levitan
- Vasily Vereshchagin
- Alexei Bogolyubov
- Fyodor Vasilyev
- Lev Lagorio
- Filipp Malyavin
- Sergei Ivanov
- Apollinary Vasnetsov
- Isaak Brodsky
- Mikhail Klodt
- Konstantin Makovsky
- Henri Fantin-Latour
Related art tours
Early Impressionism. Paris 1860–1879
The Salon, the first independent exhibition, railway stations, studios and leisure on the Seine.
American landscape. Land and its inhabitants
Nature, territorial expansion, the Civil War and urban life in American painting.
Russian landscape. From study to painting
Twelve works about observation, travel and artistic choices, from Savrasov and Shishkin to Levitan and Nesterov.
How to explore the paintings
On an artwork page, choose “Explore the painting”. Zoom in, move around the image and hide the text to see the details. Turn on the audio guide to hear the story, or use autoplay to move between passages.
Zoom quality depends on the available reproduction. Each artwork page lists its collection, story sources and image rights. Access is free and no account is required.