André Derain was a French painter during the late 1800s and the early 1900s. He was a founding member of Fauvism, a movement that focused on the use of unnatural and expressionistic colors in otherwise representational paintings. He developed this movement alongside Henri Matisse, and their paintings were deemed by critics as “les fauves” (meaning the wild beasts) due to their vibrant and unusual use of color.
André Derain was most well known for his landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. He initially expressed these subjects through Fauvism. However, during the 1920s, he began to adopt a more muted color palette as a result of the influences of Cubism and Paul Cézanne.
Derain’s work ultimately symbolizes an interesting turn in art history, marking the shift from representational uses of color towards a more expressionistic use of color as seen in later movements.
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Foundations of Art, Design, + Digital Culture 