Fauvism
Started: 1899
Ended: 1908
KEY ARTISTS
 | Henri Matisse Quick View  Artist Page |
| Henri Matisse |  |
| Henri Matisse was a French painter and sculptor who helped forge modern art. From his early Fauvist works to his late cutouts, he emphasized expansive fields of color, the expressive potential of gesture, and the sensuality inherent in art-making. Art Story: Henri Matisse Artist Page | ||
 | Maurice de Vlaminck Quick View Artist Page |
| Maurice de Vlaminck | |
| Maurice de Vlaminck was a French painter was a prominent member of the Fauvist movement, along with Matisse and Derain. De Vlaminck's best known work is characterized by a bold usage of reds, oranges and yellows, with a preference for rolling landscapes and woodland scenes. Art Story: Maurice de Vlaminck Artist Page | ||
 | André Derain Quick View Artist Page |
| André Derain | |
| André Derain, the co-founder of Fauvism, was a French artist whose paintings exhibit the writhing energetic lines and bright colors characteristic of the movement. He strove to keep art modern and current throughout his career. Art Story: André Derain Artist Page | ||
 | Kees van Dongen Quick View Artist Page |
| Kees van Dongen | |
| The Dutch-French artist's works created a remarkable record of fashions and social attitudes in Paris over the first half of the twentieth century and added to the output and scope of the Fauvism movement. Art Story: Kees van Dongen Artist Page | ||
 | Raoul Dufy Quick View Artist Page |
| Raoul Dufy | |
| Raoul Dufy was a French painter primarily associated with the short-lived, but important, Fauvist movement. Dufy's colorful outdoor scenes depicting gardens, social events and busy seascapes are his most famous, yet he also created popular fabric designs. Art Story: Raoul Dufy Artist Page | ||
 | Georges Braque Quick View Artist Page |
| Georges Braque | |
| Georges Braque was a modern French painter who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed analytic Cubism and Cubist collage in the early twentieth century. Art Story: Georges Braque Artist Page | ||
"If the trees look yellow to the artist, then painted a bright yellow they must be."
Summary
Fauvism, the first 20th-century movement in modern art, was initially inspired by the examples of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Paul Cézanne. The Fauves ("wild beasts") were a loosely allied group of French painters with shared interests. Several of them, including Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and Georges Rouault, had been pupils of the Symbolist artist Gustave Moreau and admired the older artist's emphasis on personal expression. Matisse emerged as the leader of the group, whose members shared the use of intense color as a vehicle for describing light and space, and who redefined pure color and form as means of communicating the artist's emotional state. In these regards, Fauvism proved to be an important precursor to Cubism and Expressionism as well as a touchstone for future modes of abstraction.
Key Ideas
Born to a family of weavers, and growing up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, as a child Henri Mattise was influenced by the bright colors and patterns of local textiles. His primal feeling for color (the very basis of Fauvism) was reawakened when, as a young man he returned home to convalesce from appendicitis, and his mother gave him a paint box. He later said, "From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges toward the thing it loves."
Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
" Movement Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
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First published on 25 Jan 2015. Updated and modified regularly. 
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