Gustave Courbet first articulated the ideas of "realisme" in the 1850s as he gained fame in the Paris art scene. For Courbet, realism was less about a perfect imitation of the human form as it was a reflection of authentic human experience. This meant Courbet painted in a grittier style than many of his contemporaries, and focused his attention on subjects generally seen as too commonplace for prevailing French thoughts on fine art.

Paul Gauguin was an important Post-Impressionist whose early work experimented with color and symbolism, but Gauguin's work took on a new form after visiting Tahiti in the 1880s. Gauguin began capturing the culture of Polynesia and started using symbols of Polynesia and images of Polynesians themselves in his art. In the 1890s, he permanently moved to the island of Punaauia in French Polynesia, and painted more and more symbolic paintings that played with color and structure.

This painting, Edgar Degas' "The Dance Lesson," was painted in 1879 and is a classic representation of impressionism. With its visible and broad brush strokes and its detached point of view, this painting features the hallmarks of impressionism, a painting style developed in France in the late nineteenth century. Degas preferred to call his artistic style "realism," because he believed his method of painting captured the realistic emotion of a scene, if not an exact representation of it.

Impressionism was a significant artistic movement developed in France during the late nineteenth century that utilized visible brushstrokes, representations of natural light, and everyday scenes. Challenging traditional ideas of art, the movement was initially derided by critics, but proved hugely influential. Its leading artists included Éduouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cézanne. Henri Matisse was a full generation younger than the impressionists, and was highly influenced by them, but helped develop modern art in the early twentieth century.

Even if the image is not instantly recognizable as Vincent van Gogh, the piece of art has many of his hallmarks. This 1889 self-portrait features expressive colors, deep texture in the paint, and an emotional style. Van Gogh was one of the premier post-impressionists of the late nineteenth century, who took the emotional and innovative elements of Impressionism to new artistic ground.

This painting, an 1899 self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh, stands firmly in the tradition of post-impressionism. Post-impressionists took many of the elements of the Impressionists of a generation earlier, including visible brushstrokes, emotional concerns, and everyday scenes, and pushed them further. As seen in this work, the paint is extremely thick and textured, with bright, almost unrealistic colors sharpening the image.

The Hudson River School was a group of painters in the early part of the nineteenth century who gathered in communities along the Hudson River in New York. These artists were heavily inspired by the romantic movement coming out of Europe and painted dramatic landscapes. Prominent members of the Hudson River School were Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, and Frederic Edwin Church.

Jacques-Louis David first made a name for himself as a historical painter in the 1780s, but his republican sympathies meant he was allied with French revolutionaries. This benefitted him most by allowing him to become the Emperor Napoleon's official court painter. Famous for his portraits of Napoleon, and particularly his large Coronation of Napoleon from 1806, David's style featured bold expressions, bright colors, and dramatic poses.

John James Audubon was a Frenchman who came to America in 1803 to avoid the Napoleonic Wars. He made a name for himself in the early nineteenth century as a painter of wildlife and landscapes of the then vast American frontier. His The Birds of America, published in sections between 1827 and 1838, not only was a remarkable work of art by an American artist, but helped ornithology immensely in understanding avian wildlife in America.

Impressionism grew popular in the nineteenth century as a reaction to France's main artistic competition, the Salon de Paris. The Salon's judges valued grand themes, realistic portrayals, and fine brushwork, whereas the Impressionists focused on everyday scenes, emotional depictions, and visible, thick brushstrokes. Some of the major impressionists include Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet.