c. 1905–1908
Dates overlap and vary by place; they are not strict boundaries.
Movement
A movement, period and school are different kinds of historical grouping.
Associations are checked against museum records rather than assigned from dates alone.
Why it emerged
In early-twentieth-century France, painters reworked the colour experiments of Van Gogh, Gauguin and the Neo-Impressionists. At the 1905 Salon d’Automne, startling colours earned them the critical nickname “wild beasts”. This was a short-lived association rather than a tightly organised school: colour could now shape a picture without matching local appearances.
Key artists and contributions
Henri Matisse
Organised expressive colour and simplified forms into deliberately balanced compositions.
André Derain
Recast landscapes and city views through strong colour contrasts.
Maurice de Vlaminck
Used vigorous marks and intensified colour to charge ordinary landscapes.
What changed afterwards
Their example widened the expressive possibilities of colour for artists associated with Expressionism and later abstraction. Most participants soon pursued other directions, so Fauvism is best understood as a concentrated experiment within longer careers.
Sources and further reading
Original educational overview, informed by the resources below. Artist examples are selective; they are not a complete membership list.
Representative works at the museum
These are museum reference entries. Follow the links to view the works; images are not reproduced here. These entries are not included in the comparison timeline.
Landscape at Collioure
Henri Matisse · summer 1905
The Museum of Modern Art
View at museum ↗Movement and school labels are interpretive tools. Individual works can cross boundaries, and an artist’s entire career is not assigned to a single movement.