What do Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Cyberpunk 2077 have in common? The answer is obvious, you might reply: they are both video games. That is correct, but there is another, less obvious, answer which is that they both represent Realism. Specifically, the artistic movement of Realism that began in France in the mid-1800s and has, in one form or another, continued to evolve to this day.
The painter who first coined this expression was Gustave Courbet. He presented paintings that shocked the artistic elite of the time. His painting, ‘A Burial at Ornans’ (1850-51), was a portrayal of the funeral of Courbet’s great uncle; a peasant funeral and on a scale deemed excessive for such lowly subjects. The 315 x 668cm canvas was all encompassing, immersing the viewer in the hidden reality of the peasantry, which the art-viewing aristocracy would have never normally have acknowledged. Placing such an importance to the lives of the impoverished and rural populations unsettled and threatened the upper classes in post-revolutionary France.
Realism is an art movement term that can easily applied to triple-A video game titles with their advanced graphics and commitment to mimicking human nature and experiences and, in particular, to their photorealistic, visual excellence. Nonetheless, Realism elements can also be found in video games that are not celebrated for any photorealistic qualities.