The word "realism" first appeared in 1794, as the opposite of idealism in art and philosophy. The French magazine () used the word in 1826. It said that realism was the art-style of being accurate to real life, rather than following art of the past. Around this same time, realism was thought to have been one of the styles of philosophy within scholasticism. Then in the 1840s, realism began as an art movement in France. It focused on realistic modern life without avoiding what was unpleasant. It also focused on the lower or middle classes.
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