Genre

Genre art is a term used to denote the representation of ordinary people in everyday scenes and settings. Images of domestic life, busy markets and streets or village events are common to genre art, which are often romanticised or idealised by the artist. While genre art signified a radical departure from depictions of the aristocracy, the idealisation of everyday life by early European genre painters meant that often the more difficult realities were overlooked, and the genre style became popular with the middle class bourgeoisie.