Les Fauves

 

Les Fauves were a group of painters working in France in the early 1900s. The name means “the wild beasts” in French. A critic first used it in 1905 because their work looked so different from traditional painting. These artists used bright, unnatural colors and simple shapes. They didn’t try to make their subjects look realistic. Instead, they used bold outlines and large brushstrokes.

Henri Matisse was one of the most well-known members of the group and this section will focus on him. Other artists included André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck. They often painted people, landscapes, or still lifes, but they used colors that didn’t match what you’d see in real life. For example, a tree might be painted blue, or a face might be green.

Many art historians say that Fauve painters like Matisse created scenes that showed joie de vivre, which means “joy of living.” But their main focus was actually on formal elements, especially color, pattern, and sometimes the texture or quality of the paint.

The Fauves first showed their work together in 1905 at the Salon d’Automne, an art show in Paris that featured new styles. Their section surprised and even upset many visitors because it looked so unusual. The group didn’t stay together for long. By around 1910, most of the artists had moved on to other styles.

Henri Matisse painted The Green Stripe in 1905, during a short but active period when he and a few other painters were experimenting with a new style that later got called Fauvism. The name came from a critic who described their work as looking like it was made by les fauves, or “wild beasts.” This painting was done in Paris, where Matisse was living at the time. The subject is his wife, Amélie, and the painting was probably made in their apartment studio.

Henri Matisse’s The Green Stripe (also known as Portrait of Madame Matisse) is currently housed at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, Denmark. That’s the national gallery of Denmark, and it holds a large collection of European art, including important modernist works.

The painting ended up there because it was purchased by a Danish art collector named Christian Tetzen-Lund, who supported modern artists like Matisse and Picasso early on. He bought the painting directly from Matisse or through his art dealer in the early 1900s. Later, Tetzen-Lund’s collection became part of the museum’s holdings.

So, although Matisse painted it in Paris, it’s been in Denmark for most of the last century. The museum still displays it today as part of its 20th-century European art collection.

 It was first shown publicly in 1906 at the Salon des Indépendants, an exhibit in Paris that allowed artists to show work without being judged by a jury. It got a lot of attention because it didn’t look like portraits people were used to seeing.

This was a time when France was dealing with changes in society, especially in cities. The country had gone through the Dreyfus Affair, a big political scandal that divided the public and raised questions about justice and nationalism. Artists like Matisse weren’t directly painting about that, but the atmosphere made people more open to challenging old rules. At the same time, new trade routes and colonies were bringing in art from places like Africa and Asia, and this influenced how artists saw the world and made pictures.

Matisse didn’t have a lot of money then. He was still trying to get attention for his work, and not everyone liked it. He’d studied law first, then gave it up for art, which his father didn’t support. There’s a story that Matisse painted this portrait quickly, and that Amélie didn’t like how it turned out. But she supported his work and posed for him often anyway.

Henri Matisse’s The Green Stripe was painted using both oil and tempera on canvas. The painting measures about 15.9 by 12.5 inches. That’s not especially large—it’s around the size of a regular sheet of poster board cut in half.

Matisse applied oil paint, which dries slowly and allows for smoother blending, and tempera, which dries quickly and leaves flatter, more matte surfaces. Using both was a way to experiment with texture and drying time. The canvas was stretched and primed, likely with a layer of gesso, which is a standard preparation that helps the paint stick better.

The surface texture of The Green Stripe varies because of the mixed media. Some areas look built up with thick brushstrokes, while others seem flatter. It’s not polished or smooth like some oil portraits from earlier in the 1800s. Instead, you can see the brushwork clearly, and the paint doesn’t always stay inside the lines.

The palette is saturated, with strong hues. The green stripe that runs down the middle of the woman’s face is a medium, secondary green—green being a mix of blue and yellow. There are also areas of primary colors, like blue and red, and some oranges and pinks, which are tertiary hues. The color is non local and doesn’t follow the natural tones of skin, light, or shadow. For example, the shadows on the face are blue and purple, and the cheeks are orange. These colors were not blended smoothly but placed next to each other in blocks or flat shapes.

The style is stylized, a bit abstract and not naturalistic.  The color is unnaturalistic and the proportions are off, for example, the mouth is too far down into the chin. and the symmetry is interrupted by the green stripe. The patterned blouse almost predicts how Matisse will approach and combine color in his later paintings, It is simplified, with repeated shapes to show the fabric pattern, but not drawn in fine detail.

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