Europe, he had come to believe that the Romantic emphasis on feeling and imagination was merely an escape from the realities of the time.
Truth and sincerity became the rallying cry of the realists, “it is necessary to be of one’s time.” Modern artists must rely on direct experience.
For the entire group, history had no artistic importance “human conclusion that awakened the very forces of man against paganism, Graeco-Roman art, the Ranaissance, Catholicism, and the gods and demigods, in short against the conventional ideal.”
The Realist revolt was even directed against the rendering of any contemporary events, military or political, in which the artist had not actually taken part.
It is hardly surprising that most of the Realists seek to the establishment of a new social order founded on justice for the working class.