Although the modern artist defines his freedom in opposition to the conventions of the bourgeoisie, the fact remains that the bourgeois portrait is his main source of income. From pompous busts in which he is expected to realistically represent all the lace and jewels, to domestic portraits –sometimes those of his own family– which reflect the security of a life that is rich in every sense, and including posthumous portraits, the artist resorts to any register. But this is also the terrain in which competition from photography gets tougher. Two types of realism are considered here: the still ‘transcendent’ reality of art and the now ‘objective’ reality of photography.