Priya Kapoor
Fauvism, a style of painting that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century, was characterised by bold colours, fierce brushwork, and non-naturalistic depictions. Fauvist artists, including Henri Matisse, André Derain, Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Kees van Dongen, were influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, with artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat, inspiring the movement. Fauvism broke away from Impressionism by emphasising strong colours and painterly qualities over representational or realistic values, capturing emotion in their subjects.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Painting style | Post-Impressionism |
| Impressionism | |
| Neo-Impressionism | |
| Artists | Vincent van Gogh |
| Paul Gauguin | |
| Georges Seurat | |
| Paul Cézanne |
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What You'll Learn
Impressionism
The Impressionists faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. The name "Impressionism" derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, "Impression, soleil levant" ("Impression, Sunrise"), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical 1874 review of the First Impressionist Exhibition published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari. The development of Impressionism in the visual arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media that became known as Impressionist music and Impressionist literature. Radicals in their time, the early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting. They constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner.
The most well-known French Impressionist artists include Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Gustave Caillebotte, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot. Manet influenced the development of French Impressionism, as he preferred to paint everyday objects. Monet was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he was able to move beyond the methods and precepts of his training to find his own path and express his full talent. As a reaction to the dictates of academic painting, Monet founded the Impressionist movement with other major figures such as Renoir. Leaving Realism, he gave his art an unreal note.
Fauvism can be classified as an extreme development of Van Gogh's Post-Impressionism. The Fauves painted directly from nature, as the Impressionists had before them, but Fauvist works were invested with a strong expressive reaction to the subjects portrayed. Fauvism was the first of the avant-garde movements, and the Fauve painters were the first to break with Impressionism and older, traditional methods of perception. Their spontaneous, often subjective response to nature was expressed in bold, undisguised brushstrokes and high-keyed, vibrant colours directly from the tube.
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Post-Impressionism
Fauvism, a style of painting that emerged in France in the early 20th century, was immediately preceded by Post-Impressionism. Post-Impressionism was an art movement that developed between 1886 and 1905, with French artists taking the lead. Artists like Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and Henri Rousseau were pioneers of this movement.
Post-Impressionist artists opted to evoke emotion rather than realism in their work. Paintings completed in the Post-Impressionist manner share some similar qualities, including symbolic motifs, unnatural colours, and painterly brushstrokes. They played with geometric, distorted forms and often used colours not found in nature. They employed an artificial colour palette to portray their emotion-driven perceptions of the world around them.
Post-Impressionist artists believed that a work of art should not revolve around style, process, or aesthetic approach. Instead, it should emphasise symbolism and the communication of messages from the artist's subconscious. They perceived subject matter as a way to convey feelings rather than as a visual tool or means to an end.
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Neo-Impressionism
The most famous Neo-Impressionist work is Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884", which depicts a cross-section of Paris society enjoying a Sunday afternoon in a park. Seurat employed a grid system and applied small dots of paint to create this large-scale painting, which took him two years to complete. Another notable Neo-Impressionist artist was Albert Dubois-Pillet, a self-trained artist and military officer who, along with Seurat and Signac, founded the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884.
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Symbolism
Fauvist artists often painted directly from nature, like the Impressionists, but their works were infused with a strong expressive reaction to their subjects. They employed bold colours, textured brushwork, and simplified forms to create a sense of movement and energy in their paintings. This departure from naturalistic depictions and the emphasis on individual expression were key aspects of Fauvism that built upon the foundations laid by Symbolism.
The influence of Symbolism can be seen in the work of Henri Matisse, who is considered the principal founding artist of Fauvism. Matisse's early encounters with Impressionism and his exposure to John Russell's teachings on colour theory shaped his artistic journey. However, it was his internal vision and emotional response to nature, valued by Symbolism, that profoundly influenced his Fauvist works.
Fauvism, as a movement, was short-lived, lasting only a few years from 1905 to around 1908. However, it had a significant impact on the art world, with its ideas and landmark works continuing to influence artists even after the group's dissolution. The movement's exploration of colour, form, and emotional expression paved the way for subsequent artistic styles and contributed to the development of modernist art in the 20th century.
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Pointillism
The term "Pointillism" was initially coined by art critics in a derisive manner, but as the style gained popularity, it became an important element in several artistic movements, including Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Fauvism. Artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Camille Pissarro, and Henri-Edmond Cross adopted and adapted the technique, with Cross influencing Matisse's use of colour in Fauvism.
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Frequently asked questions
Fauvism was an avant-garde movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It immediately succeeded Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, pioneered by artists such as Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, and Cézanne.
Fauvist paintings are known for their bold, non-naturalistic colours, fierce brushwork, and simplified forms. The movement's leaders, Henri Matisse and André Derain, introduced these elements to portray their expressive reactions to the subjects.
The term "Fauvism" or "Les Fauves" ("The Wild Beasts" in French) was coined by the critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1905. He described the group's paintings as a "Donatello among the wild beasts", contrasting their bold use of colours with a Renaissance-style sculpture exhibited nearby.
Apart from Henri Matisse and André Derain, other prominent artists included Maurice de Vlaminck, Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Georges Rouault, Jean Puy, Georges Braque, and Raoul Dufy.
