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| Henriette Browne Girl Writing, or, The Pet Goldfinch c. 1870 Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Julian Alden Weir Idle Hours 1888 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
The 19th-century descriptive impulse was a strong one. Artists, like novelists, made meticulous reproductions of the inanimate world, every button, every pleat. They seemed to share a notion that reality itself could be mastered if its textures were sufficiently accounted for. National art academies claimed to uphold universal and permanent standards of excellence and beauty. Posterity has judged that these claims were both bogus and irrelevant. Yet the work that asserted the claims is frequently exonerated for their falseness. It is even admired now for the foolish bravery of its illusions.
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| William Merritt Chase Pink Azalea 1880s Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Manuel Arroyo The Meeting of Francis I & Charles V 1887 Prado, Madrid |
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| Charles Bargue A Footman Sleeping 1871 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| attributed to Jean Ausustin Franquelin Mariner's Wife 1830s Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Giacomo Favretto Academic Nude 19th century Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hippolyte Flandrin Academic Nude 1830s Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Merry-Joseph Blondel Venus Healing Aeneas 19th century Prado, Madrid |
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| Germán Hernández Amores Socrates Reproaching Alcibiades 1857 Prado, Madrid |
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| Vicente López Portaña Portrait of María Francisca de la Gándara 1846 Prado, Madrid |
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| Francisco Pradilla Baptismal Procession of Prince Juan 1910 Prado, Madrid |