Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)

AT HOME AND ABROAD - KRISZTINA PASSUTH: Wild Beasts of Hungary Meet Fauves in France

selves with such apparent ease, they had to complete a "slow and tedious" path (as Matisse put it), training themselves in studios, schools and museums.

15 Nobody followed this path, with all its difficulties, exertions and initial disappointments, more doggedly to the very end than Matisse, the charismatic leader of the Fauves. But where did it all begin? And where did it lead to? And what were the preliminaries and components, which eventually made up Fauvism? First of all, the preliminaries included a number of events and discoveries, which were quite independent of the young painters and their teachers alike. Notable among them was an exhibition held in 1904 at the Louvre, which was entitled "Primitifs français",

16 along with a new interpretation of the art of Gauguin and Cézanne.

17 In sharp contrast with the popular belief, which holds that Gauguin's influence on the other artists became important only after his exhibition in 1906, Philippe Dagen convincingly argued that Gauguin had participated in the revolution of French painting already from the start, admittedly not with the same paintings, and not in the same manner, as before and after 1906. The assessment of Gauguin's personality, his escape to Tahiti and his works also changed fundamentally between 1903 and 1906, which precisely coincided with the period when Fauvism was born. How many of Gauguin's works Matisse saw before 1906 and which paintings influenced him in particular

—these are among the most exciting questions. In addition to Philippe Dagen's publications, we can find a wealth of information about these points in Jean-Pierre Barou's book.

18 According to this, on June 12, 1905 Matisse went to Saint-Clément to visit Daniel Monfreid, one of Gauguin's oldest and most loyal friends, who in 1901, in return for his services, unexpectedly received a large chest from Gauguin, which contained the wood carvings and sculpures the maestro had made on the islands. In Barou's account, these artworks included a statue of Christ, complete with a halo made of Maori shells; a native woman depicted in Buddha's position; another sculpture portraying a woman from the South Seas, also in this mystical position and with shells in her hair, etc.

19 Works, which would later be considered the most important sources of Primitivism had been hidden in that chest up till then, unseen by anyone apart from Monfreid. So, on June 12, 1905, Monfreid showed these sculptures to Matisse, who was immediately blown away by them.

20 (Before Matisse had a chance to see them, Monfreid also showed these sculptures to Aristide Maillol, who made the following, brief comment: "Gauguin made a mistake when he decided to imitate African statues.")

21 Parallel with the discovery and reassessment of Gauguin's heritage as a sculptor, the other stimulating influence came via the discovery of non-European cultures. Besides the growing popularity of Japanese art, an increasing amount of attention was generated by Egyptian and Indian art. Although it was not until 1906 that African and

—to a smaller extent

—Oceanic art also burst upon the scene, when it did, it immediately swept away its potential rivals and rose to unchallenged dominance. Robert Goldwater and Jean Laude were the first ones to call attention to the interconnections between so-called "Negro art" and Fauve painting.

22 Encountering the sculptures in Monfreid's home was a staggering experience for Matisse, indeed, he immediately became interested in Gauguin's art. This was how, on Monfreid's advice, he decided to pay a visit to Gustave Fayet, who had a wonderful collection of Gauguin's works. On top of the thirty-one paintings, he also had fifty-six woodcuts and twelve small terracotta works by Gauguin. All this took place before the Salon d'Automne of 1905.

21 Gauguin's way of painting fundamentally changed the way Matisse and the Fauves came to approach painting and made it possible for Matisse to gradually turn his back on Seurat's and Signac's pointillism. Instead, he began to paint in the strikingly different style of a new movement emerging around 1905-1906, Primitivism, which provided the basis of the best works of his early Fauve period. It was around this time, or a little earlier, to be precise, that the future Fauves saw the monumental exhibition "Primitifs français" in the Pavillon de Marsan and the Bibliothèque nationale in April 1904. The aim of the exhibition was to present 14-16th-century French so-called "primitive art" to the public with special emphasis on the primary values and superior character of French painting. Approximately five hundred paintings and manuscripts were on display, together with a few drawings and sculptures, among them works which continue to be regarded as unrivalled masterpieces.

24 By discovering Jean Fouquet or the Maître de Flémalle's art, as well as by studying the style of some others, the painters visiting the exhibition were able to justify their current artistic ideas and to extend their validity to the past. Also, the exhibition changed the earlier, negative connotation of the word "primitive", while at the same time improving the reception of artworks from previous historical periods and the unique, powerful art of distant, non-European lands. But before all these influences could have found adequate expressions in the compositions of Matisse, Derain and others, the artists developed a peculiar style of painting known as "pre-Fauve", or "proto-Fauve" in the terminology used by Alfred Barr and Jack D. Flam.

25 In contrast with André Derain: Nature morte, 1904 Private collection © HUNG ART 2006 the earlier, brownish palette of these painters, the proto-Fauve compositions used brighter and stronger colours, without actually presenting Fauve painting in its full armour. Before long, the painters returned to the use of darker tones, with the thick and dense blotches of paint merely indicating the almost insubstantial, colourfully bright Fauve style that would emerge a couple of years later. Similarly, one could not predict that the small sculptures made of bronze by Matisse would also come to play an important role in Fauvism.