Fauvism, meaning the wild beast, is a style originated from Paris, beginning around 1900, by a group of modern artist whose art emphasized painterliness and the use of various sight catching colors, overwhelming the realistic value retained by Impressionism. Fauvism, from which a few artist arisen, only last a short period of time comparing to other style in the 20th century, due to the lack of concrete theories. The most famous fauvism artist of all times includes Henri Matisse and Andre Derain, who are also the leader of the movement.

Henri Matisse

Matisses style was shaped by a number of influences, including Australian Painter John Peter Russell, by whom Matisse take a more thorough dip into the color theory, which also become a significant characteristic of his. Van Gogh and Cezanne was also his main inspiration, passing him a sense of pictorial structure and color usage. He showed his fondness for bright and expressive color became more pronounced since summer 1904, maybe owing to painting experience with neo-impressionists. Matisse then work with a group of artist who holds the same point towards modern art expressing, who is now known as Fauvism. Aiming to delight, they expressed emotion with dissonant and wild colors, without consideration of the original color or so called natural colors of the subject. His early work also showed nudity while the bright color took place, as shown in many other styles. Matisse started to focused on the emotion and feelings we experience, instead of the real image, shape, and color of the original subject, which has also been shown in many upcoming movement.

Although the movement had stopped shortly after war, the influences stayed throughout the whole century, to Dada, Surrealism, Modernism, and some said Cubism. This beloved art style is still praised by a lot of todays artist such as French Painter Emile Bellet.