Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: From Scandal to Icon
Cristina Chan | SFMOMA | 30th March 2026
Fauvism lasted just three years and started with a summer holiday at the Mediterranean. Responding to that region’s bright vistas, Matisse and Derain created works awash with colour. No new art theory inspired this, simply the idea of divorcing colour from observable reality. The exuberant work caused an uproar at the 1905 Paris Salon, establishing Matisse’s art career and inducing Braque and others to join in. Barely two years later Braque lost interest, favouring instead an even wilder quest – cubism.