Comprehensive Bulletin Notes – Fauvism & The Early 20th-Century

Historical & Cultural Context of Fauvism

• 20th-Century labelled “The Age of the Extreme”

  • Rapid technological, scientific, political and social changes created a climate ripe for artistic revolution.

  • Key inventions & discoveries:

  • Motorcar & air travel → re-defined speed, distance and perception of space.

  • Electricity → later progressed to atomic power; symbolised limitless energy.

  • Scientific milestones: split of the atom, discovery of DNA, organ transplants, antibiotics.

  • Mass-media expansion: newspapers, radio, movies; accelerated information flow and popular taste.

  • Political variety: democracy, communism, dictatorship; artists experienced conflicting ideologies.

  • Urbanisation → new social structures; visual overload of modern city life.

  • Winston Churchill anecdote: rode into battle on horseback yet witnessed a rocket launch—illustrates the period’s abrupt contrasts.

  • Atmosphere of UNIQUE CHANGE, EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY & INVENTION directly nurtured avant-garde movements like Fauvism.

Fauvism: Definition & General Features

• First revolutionary art movement of the $20^{th}$-Century (c.$1904!–!1908$).

• Key founders: Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck.

• Nickname “Les Fauves” = “Wild Beasts” (coined by critic Louis Vauxcelles) due to violent colours & seemingly untamed drawing.

• Movement had no formal manifesto; loose affiliation of artists united by approach rather than rules.

• Aimed to avoid naturalism in favour of personal emotion expressed through colour.

• Public reception: largely negative—works viewed as distorted, over-simplified, childish.

• Critical importance to Modernism: introduced arbitrary pure colour as independent visual element.

Key External Influences on the Fauvists

• Vincent van Gogh

  • Emotive, non-descriptive colour; impassioned brushwork.

  • Stressed inner feeling during the act of creation.

• Paul Gauguin

  • Colour conveys sensation; used independent, “unnatural” hues.

  • Large flat colour areas, heavy outlines, primitive simplification of form.

• Georges Seurat & Neo-Impressionism

  • Optical mixture via broken brushstrokes / dots (divisionism).

  • Early Fauves experimented with this, then rebelled by enlarging strokes or switching to flat planes.

• Henri Rousseau

  • Naïve style, bright palette, imaginative exotic scenes.

• Non-Western Cultures

  • African & Polynesian art: non-representational, decorative emphasis.

  • Moroccan textiles: dazzling colours (strong impact on Matisse).

  • Demonstrated alternative aesthetics beyond Western academic tradition.

• Synthetic Pigments

  • 19th-Century chemical industry produced new intense hues (e.g., viridian, cadmiums) enabling extreme chromatic choices.

Core Characteristics of Fauvist Painting

Subject Matter

• Everyday reality: landscapes, portraits, interiors, figure studies.

• Scene simplified into colour planes; departs radically from literal appearance.

• Artist’s emotional response prioritised over visual accuracy.

• Freedom to assign any colour regardless of observed local colour.

Colour

• Central principle of movement.

• Employed arbitrary, PURE pigments straight from tube—minimal mixing.

• Large, flat, often unmodulated areas.

• Vibrant, dissonant juxtapositions in foreground and background flatten pictorial depth.

• Contribution to Modernism: colour becomes autonomous expressive agent.

Form / Shape

• Deliberately distorted, simplified, decorative.

• Colour, not tonal modelling, defines volume and space.

• Perspective frequently incorrect or collapsed.

• Black or strong outlines emphasize shapes; intentional clumsiness communicates sincerity.

Paint Handling

• Energetic, rapid brushwork imbued with feeling.

• Techniques oscillate between broken divisionist touches and broad flat swathes.

• Paint often applied directly from tube in visible strokes, daubs or swirls.

Key Artists & Works

Henri Matisse ($1869!–!1954$)

• Initially trained as lawyer; studied art under Gustave Moreau who encouraged simplification.

• Early interest in Seurat’s divisionism, but found it rigid; Gauguin’s flat colour liberated him.

• Working method: apparent spontaneity masks slow, laborious adjustment seeking harmony & balance.

• Recurring subjects: still-lifes, room interiors, female figure, Mediterranean vistas from Nice apartment.

• Deliberately avoided war themes despite living through two World Wars.

• Late career innovation: paper cut-outs created post-surgery when wheelchair-bound; coloured paper shapes rearranged into semi-abstract compositions (e.g., The Snail, $1953$).

The Green Stripe – Portrait of Mme Matisse ($1905$)

• Oil on canvas; unveiled at 1905 Autumn Salon to shock and controversy.

• Non-modulated zones of turquoise, pink, red; central vertical green band divides face, denying anatomical modelling.

• Spatial ambiguity: orange background pushes forward, green recedes—a novel 2-D focal mechanism.

• Became emblem of Fauvist colour as means of structure, not description.

Woman with the Hat ($1905$)

• Marks transition to expressive phase.

• Loose, sketchy brushwork; wife Amélie in bourgeois attire (fan, gloves, hat).

• Outfit actually black during sitting, but rendered in expressive hues; demonstrates concept of “decorative painting.”

• Embodies Matisse’s quest for simplicity, serenity, clarity.

André Derain ($1880!–!1954$)

Mountains at Collioure ($1905$)

• Painted while collaborating with Matisse in Collioure after Van Gogh’s posthumous impact.

• Long, rhythmic strokes of greens, blues, mauves, pinks; jade-turquoise sky.

• Mountains rendered as flat colour bands; trees as explosive linear strokes; sky lit by yellow oval sun.

• Absence of traditional shadows → overall surface unity.

Maurice de Vlaminck ($1876!–!1958$)

The Seine at Chatou ($1906$)

• Largely self-taught; painted from “heart and guts.”

• Spent summer $1906$ around Chatou producing river scenes.

• Thick daubs & swirls straight from tube—echo Van Gogh’s late technique.

• Palette: primary blues & reds + white; houses, foliage, boats executed in high-key conventional hues yet emotionally charged.

Walter Battiss (South Africa)

• Draws on Fauvist colour and indigenous rock-art imagery.

• Works such as Sea Swallows, Mantis Man (c.$1970$) and Bathing exemplify blending of bright Fauvist palette with Southern African themes.

Legacy & Significance

• Despite brief lifespan, Fauvism pioneered liberation of colour and opened path for Cubism, German Expressionism and Abstract art.

• Demonstrated that emotional truth can override optical truth; laid foundation for 20th-Century explorations of subjective reality.

• Embodied broader cultural momentum of unprecedented change—mirrored society’s break with Victorian restraint.