Fauvism

While studying at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he saw the Fauve art of André Derain and Henri Matisse during the group’s official debut at the 1905 Salon d’Automne. Fauve (beast) artists—thus dubbed by art critic Louis Vauxcelles—sought to express the feelings that nature inspired in them through pure color. Braque’s landscapes from this early period, painted at L’Estaque in 1906 and La Ciotat in 1907, reflect his interest in the work of Paul Cézanne, who had just passed away, as well as his conversion to the space and color of Fauvism.