Fauvism

It was the style of les Fauves (French pronunciation: [le fov], the wild beasts), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism.

Besides Matisse and Derain, other artists included Robert Deborne, Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Bela Czobel, Louis Valtat, Jean Puy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Manguin, Raoul Dufy, Othon Friesz, Adolphe Wansart, Georges Rouault, Jean Metzinger, Kees van Dongen, Émilie Charmy and Georges Braque (subsequently Picasso's partner in Cubism).

[1] The paintings of the Fauves were characterized by seemingly wild brush work and strident colors, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction.

[3] Fauvism can be classified as an extreme development of Van Gogh's Post-Impressionism fused with the pointillism of Seurat[3] and other Neo-Impressionist painters, in particular Paul Signac.

[9] In 1896, Matisse, then an unknown art student, visited the artist John Russell on the island of Belle Île off the coast of Brittany.

[9] After viewing the boldly colored canvases of Henri Matisse, André Derain, Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Kees van Dongen, Charles Camoin, Robert Deborne and Jean Puy at the Salon d'Automne of 1905,[12] the critic Louis Vauxcelles disparaged the painters as "fauves" (wild beasts), thus giving their movement the name by which it became known, Fauvism.

[13][14] Henri Rousseau was not a Fauve, but his large jungle scene The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope was exhibited near Matisse's work and may have had an influence on the pejorative used.

[15] Vauxcelles' comment was printed on 17 October 1905 in Gil Blas,[13] a daily newspaper, and passed into popular usage.

[14][16] The pictures gained considerable condemnation—"A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public", wrote the critic Camille Mauclair (1872–1945)—but also some favorable attention.

[18] The triangular composition is closely related to Paul Cézanne's Bathers, a series that would soon become a source of inspiration for Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

1367), now at the Musée de Louviers,[23] painted in Fauvist style, with golden yellows, incandescent blues, thick impasto and larger brushstrokes.