Art style of the late 19th century. Like realism it depicts only the visible reality. The artist strictly follows the natural model without any intention to interprete. Reality is shown lifelike without any idealization. Thus also motifs from ordinary people's life or from the working world belong to the popular themes of naturalism.
This implies the representation of constructional objects (houses, squares, bridges etc.) for their own sake, thus serving not only as staffage, background, or as attribute. There were architecture pictures already in ancient Pompeji. In Middle Ages depicted constructions just indicate a certain scene. The actual architecture picture arises in the 16th century in Netherlands(f. e. “Brueghel's Tower of Babel”). Dutch artists prevailed here up until the 17th century, and were followed by Italian artists in the 18th century. In modern times the representation of architecture has become a domain of photographers.