Introduction

THE OTHER MASTERS Appreciation of the 19th Century European Classical Realistic Oil Paintings

If we look back upon the western art history, we will see that European realistic painting is its most important part. From ancient Greece to the Renaissance and to the Industrial Revolution period in the 19th century, the techniques, works and ideas of realistic painting reached its apex. Great masters of oil painting and some minor masters of such different schools and styles as pre-Raphaelitism, neo-classicism, romanticism, realism and the Barbizon School all demonstrated their outstanding artistic talents and pushed classical realistic painting to perfection.

The exhibition falls into two categories of  “Portraits and Genre School Paintings” and “Landscapes and Still Lifes” according to traditional classification in western history of fine arts.Apart from consideration of historical periods and geographical locations, it also includes criteria such as the styles of the artists, the techniques employed and the feelings attached to the works. All these works are realistic ones, with the characteristics of real scenes, truthful textural expression, exquisite detail and high summary in the tableau. And these works almost cover the whole spectrum of important schools of that time: pre-Raphaelitism permeated with a strong sense of literature and narration, German romanticism with its mysticism and profundity, French neo-classicism with its modesty and elegance, realism with its praise of nature and labor, and the French Barbizon School with its sense of on-site painting from life are all presented before us.