The Fauves. Nathalia Brodskaya

Salons were still what they had been, although the changes that had taken place did not markedly affect their art. In 1905, as before, the Goupil publishing house produced magnificent surveys of the Salons with high-quality reproductions, while printed critical reviews of the Salon appeared in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, L’Art et les artistes, and other respected periodicals. By this time, though, the grandeur verging on megalomania of the Salons, coupled with the conservative academic style, was often regarded with unconcealed irony.

      Even the Impressionists – men of the recent past, although by now they were one by one going to their graves – and the peaceful artists of the Nabis group who had not involved themselves in the struggle (Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, and the others) found themselves in a position of resistance, yet could not discover another place to exhibit besides the often derided Salon des Indépendants.

      Henri Matisse, Fruits and Teapot, c. 1898.

      Oil on canvas, 38.5 × 46.5 cm.

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      André Derain, Still Life with Earthen Jug and White Napkin, c. 1912.

      Oil on canvas, 61 × 50 cm.

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      André Derain, Table and Chairs, 1912–1913.

      Oil on canvas, 88 × 86.5 cm.

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      Henri Matisse, Painter’s Family, 1911.

      Oil on canvas, 143 × 194 cm.

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      André Derain, Drying the Sails, 1905.

      Oil on canvas, 82 × 101 cm.

      Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

      Matisse Henri, View of Collioure, c. 1905.

      Oil on canvas, 59.5 × 73 cm

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      By 1905, the Salon des Indépendants already had a history of its own. It had been founded in 1884 by artists rejected by the official Salon and was an exhibition which opened its doors to all the aggrieved without exception, promoting the principle of equality by not having a jury or awards. The established critics devoted much effort to creating a reputation for the Salon des Indépendants as they did acquiring a fantastic assemblage of works by certain cranks which might be visited so as to amuse oneself at the naive paintings of Douanier Rousseau and others like him. Yet the impenetrable conservatism of the official exhibitions was of unexpected service to the Salon des Indépendants: by the early twentieth century the latter’s emphatic objectivity, equally hospitable to all, had given way to a quite definite tendency. The path taken by this association of artists led to their Salon des Indépendants becoming a bastion of new trends; even the Impressionists found themselves no more welcome there than at the official exhibitions. However, at the moment, the fate of the Impressionists is not our concern. They could no longer be numbered among the ranks of the rejected while the younger generation badly needed an opportunity to demonstrate their art and to have some sort of association to stand up in defence of it, even if that association was still without a definite aim or programme.

      Henri Matisse, Woman on a Terrace, 1906.

      Oil on canvas, 65 × 80.5 cm.

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      In the early years of the twentieth century it was no longer possible to overlook the Salon des Indépendants. Even the lumbering state machinery was obliged, if not to reckon with it in the full sense of the word, then at least to make a gesture in its direction. Even earlier, the Direction des Beaux-Arts had sent its commissioners to the Salon des Indépendants to select pieces for purchase by the state, but they had never once found anything suitable. In 1902 the commissioner was Léonce Bénédit, curator of the Musée du Luxembourg, but he, too, found it possible to acquire only some “très delicates”[4] sketches by Édouard Vuillard. Yet the choice at the 1902 Salon des Indépendants was a fairly wide one. Among the many others, there were almost forty works by five of the future Fauves led by Henri Matisse, and an attentive eye would have discovered them the year before as well. However, they were probably not yet perceived as a distinct phenomenon or even as an association, more so since they themselves did not make an aim of exhibiting together. In 1902 they failed not only to disturb anyone, but even to attract any great attention at all. The Salon des Indépendants was then simply one of the possible places for showing their work – a few of the future Fauves managed to get a work or two into the official Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (Van Dongen, Manguin) or even into the International Exhibition held in Venice (Dufy, Friesz, Rouault). The nascent Fauves had not been noticed due to the fact that they were still outsiders, even for the Salon des Indépendants where in the course of time they would establish their own authority and preferences. For the future Fauves, however, these first public appearances, for all their failure to create an impression, did play a major role: a process of formation was underway, formation not simply of their grouping, but of their artistic outlook. Their complex, yet definite conception of their own painting, three years later would attain not only perceptible form, but also recognition.

      On 31 October, in the Petit Palais, a new exhibition opened which had not previously existed – the Salon d’Automne. Also founded by painters who had been rejected by the official salons, this exhibition was, at the moment of its creation, a strange combination of the most progressive forces in art and others which were quite conservative by the standards of the time. In contrast to the Salon des Indépendants, here there was a jury, selected five days before the exhibition. The deputy chief curator of the Petit Palais, Yvanhoé Rambosson, managed to secure premises for the new salon in the basements of his museum. From the very onset, the exhibition committee included a number of Moreau’s former pupils – Georges Desvallières, Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet and Georges Rouault. In 1903 only four of the future Fauves exhibited here – Matisse, Marquet, Rouault and Manguin; however, these artists not only took advantage of a new opportunity to exhibit, but at once began to look on the Salon d’Automne as the main venue for presenting their work. In contrast to the already customary Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d’Automne attracted both visitors and critics through its intriguing novelty. So it became their principal exhibition place and this was the start of a new era in their lives.

      In 1904 and subsequent years, the Grand Palais accepted the Salon d’Automne. Additionally, 1904 saw an extensive and brilliant display of art by the future Fauves in some of the private galleries of Paris, Berthe Weill playing the leading roll in presenting these works, became effective propaganda centres for their art: some definite new trend was in the process of emerging from the latest art.

      Henri Matisse, Bouquet (Vase with Two Handles), 1907.

      Oil on canvas, 74 × 61 cm.

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      Henri Matisse, Bouquet of Flowers on a Veranda, c. 1912.

      Oil on canvas, 146 × 97 cm.

      State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

      Henri Matisse, Calla Lilies, Irises and Mimosas, 1913.

      Oil on canvas, 145.5 × 97 cm.

      Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

4

M. Hoog, «La Direction des beaux-arts et les Fauves 1903–1905», Arts de France, 1963, p. 363.