LINE AND COLOUR1900–1906
The period from 1898 to 1900 marked an early stage for Matisse following his training in Gustave Moreau’s studio at the École nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the crucible of Fauvism. He spent the summer of 1904 in Saint-Tropez with Paul Signac and experimented with the principles of Divisionism. Back in Paris, he painted Luxe, calme et volupté [Pleasure, Peace and Opulence] in his studio. The following summer he was joined by André Derain in Collioure, near the Spanish border. The intense light inspired Matisse to structure his canvas through colour, using a vivid palette to apply different tones. The paintings he exhibited at the 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris, alongside work by Derain, Camoin, Marquet and Vlaminck, shocked critics with their violent use of colour.
From that point on, Matisse was acclaimed as the leader of a movement that would rapidly acquire a dedicated following. Between 1906 and 1907, other artists forged their own visual vocabulary inspired by Fauvist colour and Expressionism, including Georges Braque, Béla Czóbél, Kees van Dongen and Sonia and Robert Delaunay, among others. Matisse captured the essence of the Fauvist revolution in striking form: “A Fauve painting is a luminous block formed by the harmony of several colours.”
