Bold, Wild, and Bright: Examples of Fauvist Painting You Should Know

Let’s skip the textbook definitions and go straight to the canvas. The best examples of Fauvist painting don’t whisper; they shout. They make grass red, skies green, and shadows pink. They ignore “correct” color in favor of emotional color.

When people talk about examples of Fauvist painting examples you should know, they almost always start with one particular explosion of color.

Henri Matisse, Woman with a Hat (1905)

If Fauvism had a movie trailer, this painting would be the final shot. Matisse’s Woman with a Hat took the 1905 Paris Salon d’Automne and basically set it on fire. The sitter’s face is a patchwork of green, yellow, and violet. Her clothes are slashed with orange and blue. Nothing is “natural,” but the feeling of a living, breathing person is intense.

Critics at the time called Matisse and his friends “fauves”—"wild beasts"—because of works like this. As an example of Fauvist painting that broke the rules, it’s still one of the best examples of how color can carry mood more than accuracy.

You can explore the work via the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art collection, where it now lives.

André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London (1906)

Derain went to London and apparently decided the Thames needed to glow. In Charing Cross Bridge, the river is rendered in hot oranges and acid greens, while the sky feels like it’s been filtered through a heat map. This is a textbook example of Fauvist painting used to reinvent a cityscape.

Derain’s London series shows how Fauvist color can transform a familiar landmark into something almost psychedelic. These paintings are great real examples if you’re interested in landscape or urban painting but want to push beyond realistic color.

Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life (Le Bonheur de Vivre) (1905–1906)

This is the big, sprawling painting where Matisse turns a forest scene into a color dream. Figures lounge in pinks, oranges, and yellows; the trees and ground melt into planes of saturated color. The outlines are loose, the anatomy is relaxed, and the whole thing feels like a musical chord rather than a realistic scene.

As one of the most influential examples of Fauvist painting, The Joy of Life pushed later artists like Picasso to rethink how far they could bend reality. It’s housed at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which offers educational resources on modern art at barnesfoundation.org.

Maurice de Vlaminck, The River Seine at Chatou (c. 1906)

Vlaminck liked to paint like the landscape had been electrified. In The River Seine at Chatou, the water turns into stripes of blue and green, the sky blazes, and the brushstrokes feel almost sculpted. It’s a strong example of how Fauvist painting can stay rooted in a real place while still feeling unreal.

If you’re looking for real examples of Fauvist painting that lean into thick paint and aggressive brushwork, Vlaminck is your guy.

Kees van Dongen, The Corn Poppy (1919)

Van Dongen takes portraiture and dresses it in pure theater. In The Corn Poppy, the model’s face is pale and mask-like, framed by a blinding red hat. The contrast between the cool skin tones and the explosive red makes the whole painting feel like it’s humming.

This later work shows how the Fauvist approach didn’t just vanish after 1910—it morphed into glamorous, edgy portraiture that still feels modern. It’s a handy example of Fauvist painting influence surviving well into the 1920s.

Raoul Dufy, Boats at Martigues (c. 1905–1906)

Dufy’s early Fauvist works are like postcards sent from a parallel, brighter universe. In Boats at Martigues, the sea, sky, and boats are simplified into flat, punchy shapes. The colors don’t match reality, but they absolutely match the feeling of sun, heat, and movement.

Dufy is a great example of how Fauvist painting could be both experimental and decorative—something you see echoed today in surface design, illustration, and branding.

Why These Are the Best Examples of Fauvist Painting

So what links all these real examples of Fauvist painting together, besides the obvious color overdose?

Color as emotion, not description. In Woman with a Hat, the green face isn’t meant to say “this woman is sick,” it’s saying “this woman is lit by complex, shifting emotion.” In Charing Cross Bridge, the unreal oranges and greens make the city feel alive, not accurate.

Visible, energetic brushwork. Fauvist paintings often look like they were painted fast, even when they weren’t. Brushstrokes stay visible, giving the surface a kind of nervous energy. Look at Vlaminck’s river scenes—those marks are practically vibrating.

Simplified shapes and bold outlines. Many examples of Fauvist painting use thick contours and flattened forms, almost like stained glass or poster art. This simplification is a big reason Fauvism still speaks to graphic designers and illustrators.

Rebellious attitude. These artists were pushing back against polite, academic painting. The wild color was a way of saying: feelings first, rules later.

If you’re studying these examples of Fauvist painting examples you should know for your own work, pay attention less to “what” they painted and more to how they made choices about color and shape.

Lesser-Known Examples of Fauvist Painting Worth Hunting Down

Once you’ve met the usual suspects, there are other examples of Fauvist painting that deserve more love.

Henri Manguin, La Baigneuse (The Bather)

Manguin’s bathers are softer than Matisse’s but still pulse with unexpected color. Skin tones slip into oranges and pinks, and the landscape behind becomes a tapestry of greens and blues. It’s a quieter example of Fauvist painting, proof that the style wasn’t always screaming at full volume.

Charles Camoin, View of Marseille

Camoin’s cityscapes use Fauvist color to give architecture a kind of inner glow. In his views of Marseille, buildings become blocks of fresh color, and the harbor feels like it’s made of layered brushstrokes more than water. These are solid real examples of Fauvist painting for anyone interested in urban scenes.

Othon Friesz, The Port of Antwerp (c. 1906)

Friesz takes a busy port and strips it down to bold shapes and color planes. The cranes, ships, and docks become almost abstract, held together by strong lines and saturated hues. It’s a good example of how Fauvist painting could flirt with abstraction without fully crossing the line.

Fauvism’s Afterlife: Why These Examples Still Matter in 2024–2025

You might be wondering why early-1900s paintings still show up in moodboards, Pinterest boards, and design decks in 2024–2025. The short answer: color is forever.

Modern research in color perception and psychology backs up what the Fauves intuited: color has a strong impact on mood and attention. Institutions like the National Institutes of Health and universities such as Harvard regularly publish work on perception, cognition, and visual processing. Designers, UX teams, and visual artists quietly borrow the same principles you see in examples of Fauvist painting—using high contrast, unexpected palettes, and simplified shapes to guide the eye and trigger emotional response.

Some current trends that echo these best examples of Fauvist painting:

• Branding and logos that use intentionally “wrong” colors (think teal skin or neon shadows) to stand out in crowded feeds.
• Digital illustration that flattens space and uses vibrant, non-local color—a direct descendant of Matisse and Dufy.
• Interior design and murals leaning into bold accent walls and graphic, Fauvist-style patterns instead of subtle neutrals.

If you’re building your own style, studying examples of Fauvist painting examples you should know is like getting a masterclass in how far you can push color before an image falls apart—and how exciting it is right at that edge.

How to Learn from These Examples Without Just Copying

Looking at the best examples of Fauvist painting is step one. Step two is stealing the logic, not the exact look.

Try this when you study any example of Fauvist painting:

1. Squint test. Blur your eyes (or zoom out on your screen) until details disappear. Notice how the painting still holds together because of big color blocks. That’s intentional.

2. Palette notes. Pick one painting—say, The Joy of Life—and write down the main colors: lemon yellow, coral orange, deep violet, cool green. Then create your own scene using a similar palette but totally different subject.

3. Emotional color swap. Take a photo of a quiet street or a portrait. Repaint or recolor it using a Fauvist mindset: what if the shadows were violet, the sky was lime, and the skin was chartreuse? What feeling does that create?

Education-focused institutions like The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA offer free essays and high-resolution images of many of these real examples of Fauvist painting. Use those as study material rather than low-res reposts.

FAQ: Examples of Fauvist Painting, Answered

Q: What are some classic examples of Fauvist painting I should start with?
Begin with Henri Matisse’s Woman with a Hat and The Joy of Life, André Derain’s Charing Cross Bridge, London, Maurice de Vlaminck’s river scenes like The River Seine at Chatou, and Raoul Dufy’s early harbor views. These are widely considered some of the best examples of Fauvist painting and give you a solid sense of the movement’s range.

Q: Can later works like Matisse’s cut-outs be considered examples of Fauvist painting?
Technically, no—the strict Fauvist period was short, roughly 1905–1908. But Matisse’s later cut-outs carry the same spirit: flat, strong color and simplified shapes. They’re more like Fauvism’s grandchildren than direct examples of Fauvist painting.

Q: Are there good museum collections where I can see examples of Fauvist painting in person?
Yes. In the United States, look at the Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia), MoMA (New York), and SFMOMA (San Francisco). In Europe, the Centre Pompidou and Musée d’Orsay in Paris have important works. Many of these institutions also have online collections, so you can study real examples of Fauvist painting without traveling.

Q: What is one underrated example of Fauvist painting I should look up?
Henri Manguin’s bathers or Charles Camoin’s views of Marseille are excellent. They show the Fauvist approach applied with a bit more subtlety, which can be very helpful if you’re trying to adapt the style to your own work without going full neon.

Q: How can I tell if a painting is influenced by Fauvism?
Look for non-naturalistic color used to express mood, simplified forms, visible brushwork, and strong outlines. Even if a painting was made in 2024, if it uses color the way Matisse or Derain did, you’re probably looking at a Fauvist-inspired piece rather than a pure historical example of Fauvist painting.

If you remember nothing else, remember this: the best examples of Fauvist painting are permission slips. They tell you that color doesn’t have to behave. It just has to feel right.