Fauvism, style of painting that flourished in France around the turn of the 20th century. Fauve artists used pure, brilliant colour aggressively applied straight from the paint tubes to create a sense of an explosion on the canvas. The fauvists were interested in the scientific colour theories developed in the 19th century, particularly those relating to complementary colours.
Portrait of Madame Matisse. The Green Line by Henri Matisse
Complementary colours are pairs of colours appear opposite each other on scientific models such as the colour wheel, and when used side-by-side in a painting make each other look brighter. First exhibited in Paris in 1905, Fauvist paintings shocked visitors to the annual Salon d’Automne.
The leader of the group was Henri Matisse, who had arrived at the Fauve style after experimenting with the various Post-Impressionist approaches of Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Georges Seurat. Henri Matisse’s studies led him to reject traditional renderings of three-dimensional space and to seek instead a new picture space defined by movement of colour.
Les toits de Collioure by Henri Matisse
Henri exhibited his famous "Woman with the Hat "(1905) at the 1905 exhibition. In this painting, brisk strokes of colour—blues, greens, and reds. They form an energetic, expressive view of the woman. The crude paint application, which left areas of raw canvas exposed, was appalling to viewers at the time.
Woman with a Hat by Henri Matisse
The name les fauves (‘the wild beasts’) was coined by the critic Louis Vauxcelles when he saw the work of Henri Matisse and André Derain in an exhibition, the salon d’automne in Paris, in 1905. The other major Fauvists were André Derain, who had attended school with Matisse in 1898–1899, and Maurice de Vlaminck, who was Derain’s friend.
They shared Matisse’s interest in the expressive function of colour in painting, and they first exhibited together in 1905. Derain’s Fauvist paintings translate every tone of a landscape into pure colour, which he applied with short, forceful brushstrokes.
The River Seine at Chatou by Maurice de Vlaminck
Other painters associated with the Fauves were Georges Rouault, Henri Manguin, Charles Camoin, and Jean Puy.