Naturalism

Naturalism is a broad nineteenth-century movement aimed at depicting subjects as close as possible to the way the eye perceives them, without idealisation, embellishment or convention. In painting, Naturalism is bound up with the pursuit of objective truthfulness: artists worked out of doors, carefully observed light, atmosphere and the details of nature and everyday life, and often turned to the lives of peasants and workers. Naturalism is closely interwoven with Realism but stresses precisely the fidelity of visual impression and a scientific, observational approach in keeping with the positivist spirit of the age. In French art its forerunners were the Barbizon school and Jules Bastien-Lepage, whose scenes of rural life influenced whole generations of artists in various countries, including Ukraine. Naturalism was also an important concept in literature, where Émile Zola advocated an almost scientific study of society. In the visual arts the naturalist approach prepared the ground for Impressionism with its attention to immediate perception, while remaining an independent and enduring artistic outlook.