Realists render everyday characters, situations, dilemmas, and objects, all in a "true-to-life" manner. Realists tend to discard theatrical drama, lofty subjects and classical forms of art in favor of commonplace themes.

Realism is a term often used in a general sense, meaning fidelity to life (as opposed to idealization, caricature, etc.), but more usefully confined to the 19th-c. movement in painting and literature.  This was a reaction against the subjectivity and suggestiveness of Romanticism, insisting on the portrayal of ordinary contemporary life and current manners and problems, and in fact (as part of its anti-Romanticism) tending to emphasize the baser human motives and more squalid activities.  Naturalism was an extension of the principles of Realism. Courbet was the 1st major Realist painter.  Impressionism may be regarded as an off-shoot of Realism, and a 20th-c. version was Social-Realism.