Henri Matisse, Woman with a Hat, 1905, oil on canvas

The Fauves were the first 20th Century art movement and style that was recognized as a legitimate art movement. There were a multiplicity of styles and ideas percolating around the art world at the turn of the 20th Century. The Fauves (which means “wild beasts” in French) concentrated on the use of bright fully saturated color applied in a painterly way in their works.