Born in 1932 in Kewanee, Illinois, Richard Estes always had an eye for perfection. He moved to Chicago with his family at an early age and went on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1950s, where his training centered on figure drawing and traditional academic painting, the style that interested him most. His was centrally influenced by the work of Edgar Degas, Edward Hopper and Thomas Eakins, all whose works were held in the Art Institute of Chicago museum collection. After receiving his B.F.A. in 1956, Estes moved to New York working the graphic design field as a freelance illustrator for various magazines and advertising firms. Estes pursued his true passion at night, however, where he painted and gradually made a name for himself in the field, eventually being able to pursue his career as a fulltime artist.
Most of Estes's figurative work from the early 1960s are scenes of New Yorkers engaged in urban activities, the early makings of the genre he is best known for his urban landscapes. Later, around 1967, his paintings of city street scenes changed to images of glass storefronts and reflections of distorted images of buildings and cars. Based on his own photographs, he painted every meticulous detail of these street scenes freehand, and went so far as to alter minute details that made the scenes appear more precise than how they appeared in reality.
Estes is one of the foremost proponents of the Photo-Realist movement, a particular type of realism characterized by high finish, sharp details, and a photographic appearance. This movement began in the mid-1960s in America with such artists as Malcolm Morley, Chuck Close, Duane Hanson and Estes. Photo-Realism evolved from two longstanding art-historical traditions: trompe l'oeil ("to fool the eye") painting and the meticulous technique and highly finished surfaces of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. Painters such as Vermeer greatly influenced Estes with their detailed observation of reality and their use of technical devices, such as the camera obscura.
Estes still makes New York his home, and continues to create images depicting life within the city.