The document summarizes the Fauvist art movement that emerged in 1905 in Paris. The Fauvists, nicknamed "Les Fauves" or "wild beasts", shocked viewers with their explosive use of bright, unnatural colors and visible brushstrokes that broke from traditional techniques. Key Fauvist artists mentioned include Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck. While initially criticized, Fauvism previewed characteristics of later avant-garde movements and influenced artists' use of color to convey emotions, though the movement was brief and its members soon moved on to other styles.

1. Les Fauves: The “Wild Beasts”
of Paris
by Eleanor Pence & Ruby Rehman

2. Explosive Beginnings
 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris
 All grouped in one room (Salle VII)
 Generally, negative critical response at first.
 “Primitive, brutal and violent”
 “Raving madness, or perhaps, a bad joke”
 “A child playing with its paintbox”
 Name given by critic Louis Vauxcelles
 “Donatello au milieu des fauves”.

3. Why so scandalous?
 In many ways, a major departure from previous
movements
 Bright, “unnatural colors” straight from tube.
 Extremely visible brush strokes
 Colors and lack of shading work against perspective.
 Abstraction - a painting is not meant to show what’s
happening
 A preview of the characteristics of many
movements to come.

4. Influences
 Neo-Impressionist colorists
 Nabis
 Seurat’s Pointillism - share an interest in the use of
color in lending visual intensity
 Van Gogh - Pure colors, strong, visible
brushstrokes
 Later, Cezanne and Gaugin
 Cezanne: Playing with perspective through color
 Gaugin: strong colors, rich contrasts, flat color areas

5. Henri
Matisse:
Open
Window,
Collioure
(1905)

6. Matisse:
Woman
with a
Hat
(1905)

7. Maurice de Vlaminck: Tugboats on the
Seine, Chatou (1906)

8. André Derain
 Unlike the other Fauves, Derain didn’t
start out in Impressionism
 Aim of the painter was to ‘substitute his inner
vision for his perception of the world around him’
 Served in the French military from 1901-1904
 Painted over the course of several visits to
judge light and seasonal changes

9. André Derain: Turning Road at
L’Estaque (1906)

10. André Derain: The Bridge of
Waterloo (1907)

11. Derain’s Ascent to Abstraction
Effect of the Sun on the
Water (1906)
Charing Cross Bridge (1905)

12. What Happened to Fauvism?
 Fauvism’s brief history begs the question: Why
was it so brief?
 Barely unified - mostly a group of painters whose
styles and ideologies coincided for a short time.
 Rejected wild colors and blatant emotions for more
classical techniques…all except Matisse
 Emotional use of color absorbed into German
impressionism
 Its freeing of color for emotions and its refusal to
portray the world as it was had a powerful influence
on later, even more avante-garde movements.