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Movement — c. 1865–1940
American Realism
A distinctly American tradition of unflinching observation — the sea, the body, rural labour, and urban life rendered with directness and psychological depth.
283 works across 4 artists in the NGA collection
Search American Realism worksAfter the Civil War, American painters turned away from European Romanticism toward the world directly in front of them. Winslow Homer documented the sea and rural labour with an almost brutal directness. Thomas Eakins brought scientific precision to the human body. John Singer Sargent captured the nervous energy of Gilded Age society in paint that seemed to move. Edward Hopper distilled American loneliness into geometric light and shadow. The NGA holds one of the world's finest collections of American Realist work — a tradition that is distinctly national yet universal in its emotional force.
Winslow Homer
94 works
![A Shell in the Trenches before Richmond [recto] by Winslow Homer](https://pub-195741b7cda1474594e199ae97fdd720.r2.dev/thumbnails/98224.webp)
John Singer Sargent
157 works
Thomas Eakins
17 works
Edward Hopper
15 works
Collection data via NGA Open Access (CC0)
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