James Abbot McNeill Whistler - Portrait of the Painters mother

Realism, also known as the Realist school, was a mid-nineteenth century art movement and style in which artists discarded the formulas of Neoclassicism and the theatrical drama of Romanticism to paint familiar scenes and events as they actually looked.

The above painting of 'Whistlers Mother' was cutting edge in its day. Almost rejected by the London Academy, the painting had to be renamed 'Expresseion in Black and Gray' because it didn't fully conform to portrait descriptions of the day.

Furious, Whistler - possibly one of Americas greatest painters, left London for Paris where he pawned the painting. The Musee D'Orsee acquired it and it hangs there today.

Whistler, died in London and is buried in Chiswick. 

Typically Realism involved some sort of social or moral message, in the depiction of ugly or commonplace subjects.

Honore Daumier, Jean-Francois Millet, Gustave Courbet, James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargeant were all realists.