The exhibition of 250 paintings and drawings by 70 artists recreates a panorama of l9th-century French society--a faithful rendition of daily events, of human lives and environment. Dr. Gabriel P. Weisberg, Curator of Art History and Education at The Cleveland Museum of Art and Curator of the Exhibition, based his study and comparison of the distinctive qualities of Realism on the categories used by 19th-century art critics and the Salon juries: genre, still life, portrait, and landscape. The organization of this encyclopedic exhibition was an awesome task. Much of the material was passed down through the painters' families and subsequently hidden or lost. The work that had been collected by museums and private collectors was among the least studied of all the artistic traditions of 19th-century France. The work of numerous neglected painters is compared to the work of well-known masters as a means of assessing the range and depth of the Realist tradition during this period. Artists represented include Edgar Degas, Jean Francois Millet, and Gustave Courbet together with such rediscovered figures as Victor Gabriel Gilbert, François Bonvin, and Norbert Goeneutte.