Realism and the visual arts in France and Japan

Recent developments in the field of art history have chipped away at the preeminence of the “Western” narrative of realism, in which European and American realisms play a central role. Acknowledging artistic traditions from across the world has drawn attention to varieties of realism in a host of artistic traditions, many of which had little to no contact with European artistic production. While it is extremely difficult to generalize about the character of realism in the visual arts, some common subjects are the representation of contemporary urban life; the social life of the working classes, with a particular focus on agricultural workers and sex workers; and the politics of consumption. Separated by two centuries and several continents, the French impressionist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) and the Japanese woodblock artist Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694) both represented female sex workers soliciting clients while sitting on a terrace overlooking an urban street. The similarities and differences between these two approaches suggest that realism in the visual arts, while globally practiced, is not a uniform phenomenon. Subjects may remain the same, but beliefs about what constitutes the real can be very different.