Guide to Fauvism: History, Characteristics, and Artists

Fauvism describes the style of painting adopted by a group of French painters, principally Henri Matisse, André Derain, and Maurice de Vlaminck, just after the turn of the century. It is the first major avant-garde expressionist movement of the twentieth century. The remark that critic Louis Vauxcelles made at the Salon d’Automne was a summary of the shock and dismay so many other viewers of the paintings felt as they looked at these boldly colored and distorted compositions.

These artists were painting in an overtly anti-naturalistic manner, actively going against the conventions of traditional art. The Fauves were searching for a new means of expression, for a new art. The ways in which their art challenged authority, and relied solely on the artist’s talents and experience of the world would become a fundamental attitude of modern art going forward.

The Fauvist movement was relatively brief. Matisse and Derain both introduced bold brushstrokes and non-naturalistic color into their paintings during the summer of 1905 when they were working together in the small fishing village of Collioure on the French Mediterranean coast. The original Fauvists exhibited all together at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, France, in 1905.

They were soon joined by others who shared their vision, including Georges Braque (who would go onto develop Cubism with Pablo Picasso), Georges Rouault, Albert Marquet (Matisse's École des Beaux-Arts classmate), Raoul Dufy, Jean Puy, Othon Friesz, Kees van Dongen, Charles Camoin, and Henri Manguin. Although Fauvism influenced many artists, by 1910, the painters that were considered the leading figures had moved on to progress in their individual styles.

The characteristics that most define Fauvism are the highly intense color palette and the bold brushwork.

• Reaction against Symbolism: Fauvism is an art movement that sharply contrasts the Symbolist art of the fin-de-siecle (turn of the century). Symbolists like Edvard Munch, Odilon Redon, and Gustave Moreau were concerned with exploring spirituality, death, existentialism, and the occult, and their works are characterized by a dark, moody color palette. Fauvism responded to the heavy and dark color palette of the Symbolists, as well as the pastel palette of the Impressionists, by embracing a palette of bold, vibrant and non-naturalistic colors.
• Influence of Postimpressionism: Henri Matisse—who is considered the principal Fauvist painter—was influenced by the work of Postimpressionists Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cézanne, and the Neo-Impressionists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Some scholars interpret the Fauves as having taken Seurat and Signac’s Pointillism and combined it with the bright colors of the Postimpressionists.
• Expressive colors: Fauvist paintings emphasize the expressive qualities of pure color. These painters applied pure hues of color arbitrarily, not basing their choices on how their subject matter appeared in nature.
  
• Fierce brushwork: The Fauves created paintings with rough passages of color, thick brushstrokes, and dabs of bright color. Sometimes the artist applied the paint directly from the tube onto the canvas, forgoing brushes altogether.

Matisse’s Woman With a Hat (1905) is an excellent example of the qualities of Fauvist painting. The elaborate hat perched on the sitter’s head is built up with rough passages of dark blue and green paint, with flashes of orange, brick red, and fuschia. The shadows cast on her face are indicated with strokes of dark green, where the highlights on her cheekbone, ear, and neck are made with dabs of fiery orange. These color choices and application of paint onto the surface of the canvas give the subject of the painting—a woman with a fan, twisting backward to look out at us—an intensity and immediacy that had not yet been seen before in modern painting.

These three artists were once considered “les fauves” (“wild beasts”) by art critics.

1. 1. Henri Matisse: Henri Matisse is the artist who is considered the leader of the Fauvist movement. He came to work in the Fauvist style after studying Post-Impressionists like Cézanne, Gaugin, and Van Gogh, and the influence of these artists encouraged him to use bold colors to define his paintings.
2. 2. André Derain: André Derain is a Fauvist painter best known for his paintings of landscapes and cityscapes. His most well-known paintings depict the French countryside and a series capturing views of the Thames River in London.
3. 3. Maurice de Vlaminck: Maurice Vlaminck’s painting style was highly influenced by the work of Van Gogh, whose retrospective exhibition he saw in 1905. De Vlaminck's bold color choices were said to match his equally exuberant personality. The River Seine at Chatou (1906) is his most famous Fauvist work.

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