What is Fauvism?

Definition

Reflecting upon the art movement and style he helped pioneer, artist André Derain stated,

Derain’s quote encapsulates the explosive and fiery passion that propelled fauvism: a modernist movement that is now famous for its rejection of tradition, use of bold colors, and its experimental brushstrokes. The style of “les fauves” – which means “wild beasts” in French – emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Around the fin de siècle and the beginning of the twentieth century, many artists, writers, and filmmakers were experimenting with how to represent their varied experiences of modernity more authentically. This often resulted in experimental aesthetic processes which challenged the form and textures of everyday experiences: what Philip Hook describes as “a deluge of modernist invention that would shake traditionalist convention to its foundations” (Art of the Extreme 1905-1914, 2021). Fauvism fought against the naturalistic and classical representations of life in art, using color to do so. 

Led by Derain and Henri Matisse, fauvism coalesced around a collection of artists who were using color in new and exciting ways to elicit wild and vibrant expressions of emotion on the canvas. Rejecting traditional modes of representation and realism, the fauvists embraced abstraction, using bold explosions of color to depict the turbulence of modernity and the changing world around them.

What follows is an exploration of fauvism’s influences and origins, tracking how they came to be known as the wild beasts, as well as an overview of their style, aesthetic, and the exhibitions that ignited both vicious critiques and admiration, before reflecting on the legacy of the fauves. 

Wild beginnings 

Hook pinpoints fauvism’s beginnings around the time that color “was most spectacularly unshackled in 1905,” specifically citing Henri Matisse’s “liberation” of color in his paintings (2021). We can see this in the vivid pinks and purples Matisse's The Open Window (see Figure 1).

Fig 1. Matisse, H. (1905) The Open Window, Wikimedia Commons

While many critics pinpoint the art movement’s origins in 1905, others have traced the style influences as beginning much earlier. Similarly, some view fauvism’s dispersal around 1907 or 1908, yet its style can be seen to persist much later. Three famous fauvist exhibitions took place between 1905 and 1906, and afterwards, many artists continued innovating with different techniques like cubism or returned to the structure of neo-impressionism. However, Matisse would continue to play with the fauvist style for many years later. Therefore, fauvism as a style is much less easily demarcated to temporal periods. 

Dorothea Eimert suggests that the “height” of fauvist innovation took place between 1905-1907 (Art of the 20th Century, 2016); Nathalia Brodskaïa looks further backwards at fauvism’s nineteenth-century influences, where it “proceeded directly from that of the Impressionists” (The Fauves, 2014); and Russell T. Clement locates the first stirrings of fauvism in 1892 when Matisse joined the studio of the symbolist Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux-Arts (Les Fauves, 1994). As with many art movements, strict definitives and absolutes are hard to come by: fauvism flourished in relation to collaborations and connections between individuals, which resist a degree of certainty by nature of their organic fluidity. Therefore, this section offers a brief impression of the fauves and the connections and events that led to the “liberation” of color in 1905 that gave fauvism its name (Hook, 2021). 

Moreau’s studio

Frustrated with the rigid constraints of academic painting schools he had attended in Paris, Matisse found Gustave Moreau’s studio in 1892 and enrolled a couple of years later as a student (Clements, 1994). It was here that he studied impressionism, resulting in his own impressionist-inflected paintings like The Dinner Table (see Figure 2). It was also at this school that Matisse met his fellow students Albert Marquet, Henri Manguin, Georges Rouault, and Charles Camoin, who would all later be associated with the fauves. 

Fig 2. Matisse, M. (1896 - 1897) The Dinner Table, Wikimedia Commons

In this studio, Moreau promoted experimentation and a freedom from traditional technique. Speaking of Moreau’s teaching, Matisse stated: “He did not set us on the right roads, but off them. He disturbed our complacency” (quoted in Charlotte Gerlings, 100 Great Artists, 2013).

A summer in Collioure

Inspired by Moreau’s teaching, the neo-impressionist pointillism of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who dabbed minute spots of pure color onto their canvases, and the intense swirling colors of Vincent van Gogh’s post-impressionist works, Matisse began playing with different techniques. He spent the summer of 1905 in the small fishing town Collioure in the South of France, where a number of factors and influences seemed to come together to transform his painting. As Hook writes: 

He began using his brushstrokes more freely, with large and striking blocks of color, without adhering to convention or tradition. Derain joined Matisse in Collioure in July 1905 and, as Hook explains, he “was instantly overwhelmed by the power of the southern light and the impact of its colour, now heightened through Matisse’s eyes” (2021). It was this intense focus on color that spurred what would later come to be known as fauvism, with Matisse reminiscing: 

Room 7

As August ended, both painters returned to Paris: Derain with 30 finished canvases and 70 drawings and sketches and Matisse with 15 canvases and 140 drawings and watercolors (Hook, 2021). It was some of these paintings, created in the heat and vibrant tones of Collioure, that were exhibited in a momentous exhibition at the Salon d’Automne at the Grand Palais. 

The exhibition opened on 18 October 1905 in Paris, where works by Matisse and Derain hung alongside submissions from their contemporaries Marquet, Manguin, Camoin, and Kees van Dongen. Georges Desvallières was responsible for curating this collection together in Room 7 of the larger exhibition, which would become infamous, and caused critical and public outcries. Clement describes this as a “scandal”:

One of the critics who attended the exhibition was a man called Louis Vauxcelles, who described the exhibition in the Parisian magazine Gil Blas in October, writing that:

It was this description of the exhibition that gave the fauvists their name. Critics quickly took up the name “les fauves” – the wild beasts – to refer to this cohort of associated artists, who were all using color in wild and wonderful ways. 

Beastly style

As a stylistic term, fauvism is often applied to a loosely connected group of artists who possessed no central program or school. Each associated artist experimented freely, but were broadly driven by the same collective excitement, vivacity, and compulsion to represent modern life as they perceived it. This drive was laced with a sense of optimism that carried over onto the canvas, with Derain stating: “The goal we set ourselves is happiness, a happiness which consequently we should create” (quoted in Brodskaïa, 2014). This flaring optimism that Derain describes is felt most overtly in fauvism’s use of color. As Matisse asserted, “It is through colour that I feel” (quoted in Brodskaïa, 2014). The following is an overview of some of fauvism’s stylistic features and its use of color, expression, and emotion. 

Oil paints 

The fauves favored oil paints, which were often squeezed straight from the tube onto the canvas. As Brodskaïa writes, oil paints could easily be “set in pastose clots” or “spread in a thin layer making it possible for one colour to penetrate into another without losing its purity and resonance in the process” (2014). The bold, vibrant, and striking colors of the oil paints can be seen in pieces like Kees van Dongen’s Red Dancer (see Figure 3), with its rich reds that capture the movement of the dancer’s dress. 

Fig 3. van Dongen, K. (1907) Red Dancer, Wikimedia Commons

Perspective

Color was also used to craft different pictorial perspectives and senses of space. Instead of the three-dimensional planes that had been popular within traditional painterly techniques or the preceding impressionist masters, the fauves used color to elicit the feeling of movement and dynamism, often using two-dimensional perspectives to do so. For example, Derain’s rendering of Charing Cross Bridge (see Figure 4) harnesses bold blocks and brushstrokes of color to create the feeling of London without adhering to traditional methods of perception. 

Fig 4. Derain, A. (1906) Charing Cross Bridge, Wikimedia Commons

Non-naturalistic uses of color

Fauvism sought to express life through color and, in doing so, liberated it from its subject matter. Rejecting the traditional modes of realism, the fauves used non-descriptive, bright, and vibrant colors to represent their subjects and “distort nature” (Hook, 2021). For example, a sky could be yellow, a mountain could be orange, and a tree could be blue. In Derain’s The Turning Road, the bark of a tree moves from bright red and burnt orange to purples and blues. This bold use of color allowed artists to capture their own subjective perception, rather than be restricted to faithful or naturalistic depictions. 

Bold brushstrokes 

The fauves wielded their vibrant colors with wild, energetic, and forceful brushstrokes. Sacha Bru notes that this was part of why fauvism is sometimes grouped under the banner of expressionism:

Indeed, the raw and agitated strokes on the canvas contributed to a sense of heightened momentum and emotion. For example, Matisse’s The Open Window uses many varied and contrasting brushstrokes, from sweeping vertical movements, to flurries of shorter, sharper strokes, and dabs of color, which lean over into abstraction but come together in a wild swirl of emotion to create the piece. 

Exhibitions 

Fauvism as an artistic movement can be demarcated by its three official exhibitions. The first, as we have already covered, occurred in October 1905 in the Salon d’Automne, where fauvism found its name, captured the public’s attention, and definitively marked its beginnings. The second exhibition, the Salon des Indépendants of 1906, saw the fauves consciously exhibit their work together. Brodskaïa notes that this Salon “already had a history of its own” (2014). It had been opened in 1884 by the artists who had been rejected by the official Salon in Paris (which privileged classical forms, beauty and traditional techniques). Here, Matisse exhibited The Joy of Life (see Figure 5), which includes human figures as well as natural ones and harnesses the two-dimensional planes to foreground the bright colors and forms.

Fig 5. Matisse, H. (1905) The Joy of Life, Wikimedia Commons

It was met, as Hook writes, with “public derision and incomprehension” (2021). 

The third group exhibition took place at the Salon d’Automne of 1906 and included an expanded collection of fauves. Metzinger, Robert Delaunay, Camoin, Robert Antoine Pinchon, and Paul Cézanne all exhibited works. Critics still protested at the bold colors, flat perspectives, and the rejection of traditional techniques. By this time, many fauves were excitedly developing their style, or reverting to the previous structures of neo-impressionism. 

Fauvism’s legacy

Fauvism is often characterized as a fleeting and blazing burst: as Clement writes, “[f]ew radical movements in art have had so brief a life span” (1994). Clement suggests that perhaps fauvism was so short-lived because of its intensity:

Perhaps the movement’s somewhat fleeting moment was due to the fact that it encompassed so much innovation, where different artists were experimenting in different directions, propelling them quickly away from fauvism. Indeed, fauvism’s first movement towards abstraction was fully realized by Cubism, which was developed by the fauve Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Cubism’s legacy and radical form have, Brodskaïa suggests, “overshadowed Fauvism” and also “placed both phenomena in a definite position in the general historical succession” (2014). Steve Edwards also warns against viewing the two movements in such a manner, where the story of art history is often told 

The story of fauvism remains an integral one in its own right. It is the story of artistic play, radical formal experimentation, and collaboration. It drew on many different art styles and movements, coming together to create something vibrant, sensual, and powerful, and later informed many threads of artistic innovation throughout the twentieth century. It is part of a broad tapestry of modernist and avant-garde experimentation, where it can tell us a lot about this particular moment in time and the entangled emotions of wild beasts that were being expressed. 

Further reading on Perlego 

A Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture (2008) edited by David Bradshaw and Kevin J. H. Dettmar

Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909–1939 (2007) by Mark Antliff

Henri Matisse (2014) by Catherine C. Bock-Weiss

Modernism and Its Media (2021) by Chris Forster

Tate Introductions: Matisse (2014) by Juliette Rizzi

External resources 

Amity, D., Dumas, A., Duvernois, I., and Monod-Fontaine, I. (2023) Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Debray, C. (2013) Matisse and the Fauves. Wienand. 

Elderfield, J. (1976) The “Wild Beasts”: Fauvism and Its Affinities. Museum of Modern Art. 

Whitfield, S. (1996) Fauvism. W. W. Norton.

Bibliography 

Brodskaïa, N.  (2014) The Fauves. Parkstone International. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3733924

Bru, S. (2018) The European Avant-Gardes, 1905-1935. Edinburgh University Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1708626 

Clement, R. T. (1994) Les Fauves: A Sourcebook. Greenwood. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/4173975

Dempsey, A. (2002) Styles, Schools and Movements: An Encyclopedic Guide to Modern Art. Thames & Hudson. 

Edwards, S. (2013) Art & Visual Culture 1850 - 2010: Modernity to Globilisation. Tate Publishing. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3754052 

Eimert, D. (2016) Art of the 20th Century. Parkstone International. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3733413

Gerlings, C. (2013) 100 Great Artists: A Visual Journey from Fra Angelico to Andy Warhol. Arcturus. Available at:

https://www.perlego.com/book/2811026/100-great-artists-a-visual-journey-from-fra-angelico-to-andy-warhol

Hook, P. (2021) Art of the Extreme 1905-1914. Profile Books. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3708438
Unger, M. J. (2018) Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World. Simon & Schuster. Available at:

https://www.perlego.com/book/1393348/picasso-and-the-painting-that-shocked-the-world

Artworks

Derain, A. (1906) The Turning Road, L’Estaque. [Oil on canvas] Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Derain, A. (1906) Charring Cross Bridge. [Oil on canvas] National Gallery of Art, Washington, John Hay Whitney Collection, Wikimedia Commons

Dongen, K. (1907) Red Dancer. [Oil on canvas] Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Wikimedia Commons

Matisse, H. (1896 - 1897) The Dinner Table [Oil on canvas],Wikimedia Commons

Matisse, H. (1905) The Open Window [Oil on canvas] National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, Wikimedia Commons

Matisse, H. (1905) The Joy of Life. [Oil on canvas] Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Wikimedia Commons)