Matisse and the Fauves

(Wild Beasts)

Henri Matisse

• The end of the 19th century saw the decline of the influence of the Academy and the Salon exhibitions. The 20th century gave birth to a series of new art movements in Europe.

• The first of these was led by Matisse, in Paris. This group exhibited together in 1905, showing works so brightly colored, so simple in design, and so loose in brushwork that one critic labelled the artists Fauves, or Wild Beasts.

• They built on the work of the Post Impressionists; they were even more daring in their colour than Van Gogh, and bolder than Gauguin in their use of flat shapes and lively line patterns.

• Matisse discovered art as a child when he was given paints to pass the time after an attack of appendicitis. He said, “I felt transported into a paradise in which I felt gloriously free.”

Derain’s Portrait of Matisse

• Matisse was not interested in recreating the shapes or colours found in nature. He was mainly interested in organizing the design qualities of an image, using shape and colour and texture to create images that were simply pleasing to the eye.

Matisse – The Red Room

• In The Red Room, we see a flat, decorative quality rather than any attempt to create the illusion of three dimensionality or realism.

• • Madame Matisse • in a Red Scarf

• Here again we see• Matisse simplifying

• and flattening• shapes, and using • decorative pattern.

Matisse – Odalisque Wearing Red Trousers

• Matisse travelled to northern Africa, and spent time in Morocco.

• The Muslim prohibition against the portrayal of humans or animals led, over many centuries, to the development of intricate decorative patterns in Muslim art.

• The influence of North African Muslim culture, with its love of pattern, is evident in Matisse’s odalisque paintings.

Odalisque in Red Trousers

• Matisse• The Purple Robe

• Matisse

• Goldfish

• Matisse – Icarus• In the last years of his

life, Matisse spent most of his time creating paper cut outs, endlessly rearranging them, seeking the perfection of composition that would give viewers pure pleasure.

•

His economy is like that of a Haiku poet

The Knife Thrower. 1947This is a famous cut out by Matisse. He

uses minimal information to vividly portray the energy of a knife thrower and the impassivity of his female assistant. What effect is created by the fact that the female figure touches the top and bottom of the format?

.

Andre Derain

1880 - 1954

• Derain was born in 1880 just outside Paris. In 1898, while studying to be an engineer at the Académie Camillo, he attended painting classes under Eugene Carriere and there met Matisse. Matisse persuaded Derain's parents to allow him to abandon his engineering career and devote himself solely to painting.

• Derain and Matisse worked together through the summer of 1905 in the Mediterranean village of Collioure and later that year displayed their highly innovative paintings at the Salon d’Automne. The vivid, unnatural colors led the critic Louis Vauxcelles to derisively dub their works as Les Fauves or "the wild beasts", marking the start of the Fauve movement.

• In March 1906, the noted art dealer Ambroise Vollard sent Derain to London to compose a series of paintings with the city as subject.

• In 30 paintings, Derain put forth a portrait of London that was radically different from anything done by previous painters of the city such as Monet.

• With bold colors and compositions, Derain painted multiple pictures of the Thames and Tower Bridge. These London paintings remain among his most popular work and sell for as much as $6 million. (Wikipedia).

Andre Derain - Trees at L’Estaque

• Andre Derain – Bridge at Riou

Derain- Street in London

Derain – London Bridge - 1906

Derain – Turning Road

Raoul Dufy

1877 - 1953

• Raoul Dufy was born in Le Havre, in Normandy (northern coast of France).

• He studied art at Le Havre's École d'Art (municipal art school).

• During this period, Dufy painted mostly Norman landscapes in watercolors.

• In 1900, Dufy won a scholarship to the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris where he concentrated on improving his drawing skills.

• The Impressionist landscape painters, such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, influenced Dufy profoundly. His first exhibition took place in 1901.

• Introduced to Berthe Weill in 1902, Dufy showed his work in her gallery in Paris. Then he exhibited again in 1903 at the Salon des Independents.

• Henri Matisse’s Luxe, Calme et Volupte, which Dufy saw at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, was a revelation to the young artist, and it directed his interests towards Fauvism.

Matisse – Luxe, calme, et volupte (beauty, calm and pleasure)

• It was not until 1920, after he had flirted briefly with cubism, that Dufy developed his own distinctive approach. It involved skeletal structures, arranged with foreshortened perspective, and the use of thin washes of color applied quickly, in a manner that came to be known as stenographic.

• Dufy's cheerful oils and watercolors depict events of the time period, including yachting scenes, sparkling views of the French Riviera, chic parties, and musical events. His pictures typically have an optimistic, fashionably decorative, and illustrative nature.

Raoul Dufy – The Bay of Angels

Raoul Dufy – Interior with Open Window

Dufy – Nice Casino

Dufy – Dolce far Niente (Tribute to Mozart)

Dufy – Red Violin