Fauvism
A French art movement known for bold color and expressive brushwork.
Fauvism (FOH-viz-əm) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of les Fauves (French pronunciation: [le fov], 'the wild beasts'), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. The leaders of the movement were André Derain and Henri Matisse.
- field
- Painting
- nationality
- French
- known_for
- Strong color, wild brushwork, simplification and abstraction
Lore & Background
The movement's inspirational teacher was Gustave Moreau, a Symbolist painter and professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, who taught Matisse, Marquet, Manguin, Rouault, and Camoin during the 1890s. Moreau's broad-mindedness and affirmation of the expressive potency of pure color was inspirational for his students.
Reader's Guide
Fauvism is significant as one of the first avant-garde movements of the 20th century, breaking decisively with Impressionist representation in favor of pure color and expressive brushwork. The paintings were characterized by seemingly wild brush work and strident colors, with subject matter that had a high degree of simplification and abstraction. Fauvism can be classified as an extreme development of Van Gogh's Post-Impressionism fused with the pointillism of Seurat and other Neo-Impressionist painters, particularly Paul Signac. Other key influences included Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. Some of the Fauves were among the first avant-garde artists to collect and study African and Oceanic art, leading several toward the development of Cubism. The movement's legacy lies in its liberation of color from descriptive function, paving the way for subsequent modernist movements.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Fauvism's powers/role?
The movement is defined by its reliance on intense, non-naturalistic color, visible and wild brushwork, and a deliberate simplification or abstraction of forms. It treated paint as an emotional instrument rather than a window onto the visible world.
Why is Fauvism important?
It was among the first major modernist currents to free color from its descriptive role and let it carry the emotional weight of a painting. That shift toward subjective expression over accurate depiction opened the door for later abstract and expressionist work.
More in Art Movements 1-24
Elsewhere in the Art Movements universe
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record