Introduction to the project
Fauvism was a modernist art style that existed in the early twentieth century; the name was coined from the French phrase ‘Les Fauves’ which in English means ‘the wild beasts’. The movement was named by Louis Vauxcelles who thought that the group’s paintings were wild. It got its symbolic aspect from impressionism and the fact that its art work had a lot of color emphasis.
This art period was significantly short as it began in 1904 and continued past 1910. Henri Matisse and Andre Derain were the founders of this art movement which was credited with three successful exhibitions. Fauvism was drawn from a fusion of pointillism, post-impressionism and neo-impressionism. Their paintings were full of color and impressive brush work.
Fauvism was also considered as a form of expressionism because it drew its various aspects from impressionism and naturalism. It had its origin in France with the philosophical leadership of Henri Matisse and the radiant color inspiration taught by Gustave Moreau who was a symbolist painter with a strong belief in originality, and the positivity of paintings that were done using pure colors.
The initial earth colored art was replaced by colored paintings inspired by the art works of Vincent Van Gogh. Later on, it drew aesthetic influences from African sculptures collected by fauvism artists.
The geographic area of the art period
This style had its origin in France and was popular among other French artists such as Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Albert Marquet, Charles Camion, Louis Valtat, Maurice Marinot, Jean Puy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Manguin, Raoul Dufy and Georges Braque.
Major art pieces that relate to your topic
Henri Matisse; a French artist, sculptor, painter and draughtsman was one of the founders of the Fauvist movement and its philosophical leader.
This painting by Henri Matisse was his first work that portrayed impressionism and also the advent of colored painting by the Fauvists. He helped the development of plastic art and practiced classical French painting. This painting was done in neo-impressionist style that expressed emotion using a wild display of colored paintings.
French Fauvism co-founder Andre Derain was a painter and sculptor. He worked closely with Matisse in developing the Fauvism art culture. In accordance with this art form, his works had a lot of color filled paintings. He was best known for his paintings of London as this collection of paintings were unique in the colors used and also how he portrayed the English aspect of these pictures.
In his London collection he fused the divisionism; that is segregation of colors and pointillist technique which involved painting using a series of dots. This painting is called ‘the drying sails’ and contains colored fragments to indicate water motion. He later drifted into the cubism art form that was inspired by sculpturing.
This painting was done by Maurice de Vlaminck who was a painter and later on a writer. He was Fauvist and a key member of the movement who was privileged to paint alongside their founder Matisse. “The River Seine at Chatou” below is one of his paintings that he used to express emotion and mood using different colors.
Othon Friesz was a French born artist who was also a Fauve artist. His painting below is called ‘Roofs and cathedral in Rouen’.
Impressionistic painting by Charles Camion
Fauve artist Georges Brasque’s painting titled ‘little harbor in Normandy.
Raoul Dufy‘s painting called ‘Le cavalier Blanc’, he was a fauvism painter and used water colors.
Albert Marquet French symbolist painter he worked with Matisse and the painting below is titled ‘port of Marseilles’.
