It was basically Realism, sometimes also known as naturalism. It is an attempt to provide accurate representations of life and objects through art.
Realist or naturalist works of art may be "realist" in their subject-matter, and emphasize the mundane, ugly or sordid.
In the 19th-century Realist movement that began in France in the 1850s and also social realism, regionalism, or kitchen sink realism.
The Realist painters rejected Romanticism, which dominated French literature and art, hence the realist art was necessary during the nineteenth century.
