Henri Matisse and the Fauves

André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, John Hay Whitney Collection 1982.76.3		André Derain, View of the Thames, 1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon 1985.64.12

Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, Gray Day, 1903, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale Collection 1963.10.183

The fauves benefited from the scandalous 1905 Salon d'automne. In a burgeoning market for modern art visibility was key, and everyone knew the "wild beasts." Dealers bought up fauve paintings. Derain was sent to London by his dealer Ambroise Vollard. Vollard particularly wanted Derain to paint some of the same subjects that had occupied impressionist Claude Monet only a few years earlier. Derain felt that several of his London paintings were his most successful fauve works.