Fauvism Fact Sheet
Read the following information and answer the questions.
Les Fauves (French for The Wild Beasts) was the name of an
art movement in the early 20th century, led by the painters Henri
Matisse and André Derain. The Fauves were a group of French
painters who were influenced by the bright colours of postimpressionists.
The bright colourful style of painting that they used began around
1900 and continued beyond 1910, but the group was only
together for three years, 1905–1907.
Henri Matisse who was born in 1869, was one of the leaders of
the Fauvist art movement. He was encouraged by his mother to
not follow the normal rules of art, but to try out new things and to
paint his emotions. Matisse began to paint with bright masses of
colours that were freely applied. He used the colours to express
emotion often using colours that had nothing to do with the
natural colours of the subject.
Matisse also Painted, ‘Woman
with a Hat’. Woman with a Hat is
characteristic of Matisse’s Fauvist
style. It is a portrait of his wife,
Amelie, in vivid, unnatural colours
and rough, fluid
brushstrokes. This painting was
criticized with one critic saying
that a pot of paint was flung at the
painting.
Critics did not like the Fauvist
painters at first because the
vibrant colours that Fauvists used
were different to the realistic
colours used in traditional
Henri Matisse. Woman with a
paintings.
Hat. 1905