Biography

French painter. Born in Paris. He taught himself painting, while also earning his living working as a bicycle and boat racer. In 1900, he met painter Andre Derain while on leave from the army. After he was discharged, they rented a studio together in Chatou. In 1901, he was strongly impacted by Van Gogh’s retrospective he had seen, and began to devote himself to painting. In 1905, with an invitation from Matisse, he participated in the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles criticized their works as being “fauves” (wild beasts), due to their use of vivid colors and bold brushstrokes. From around 1908, in place of his Fauvist expressions up until that time, he began to develop a style of painting that adopted Cezanne’s style of constructively composing the plane. Furthermore, upon entering the 1920s, his style transformed into a more dramatic expression, with colors based around black and white.