Fauvism, the first modern art movement of the 20th century, was a very short-lived movement between 1905 and 1907 that was the product of a culture in rapid and radical change. Innovation and experimentation were becoming key in the art world as a break with traditionalism meant that art had to constantly entertain the ever-evolving idea of ​​what it was and what it was becoming. Fauvism was just one of the many cogs in the innovation machine, fueling Modernism, Futurism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism, to name just a few. All of these art movements have been carefully examined, but Fauvism is one that is least easily definable, as Sarah Whitfield said, Fauvism “was the most transitory and the least definable possible.” The lack of “any kind of doctrine,” as Van Dongen states, means that it is difficult to pin a specific person or place as responsible for Fauvism. Fauvism was simply a group of painters who reacted in much the same way to the climate of the times and who shared common aspirations and ideals about art, such ideals included the use of bright, often contrasting and complementary artificial colors, as well as the creation of a strong, unified work that appears flat on the canvas and a general push towards abstraction. But how did this temporary phase of art develop? Jean Leymarie states that “Collioure was the birth of Fauvism”, this essay will try to come to a conclusion as to who, where or what was responsible for the development of Fauvism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay One line of argument that Collioure was the birthplace of Fauvism is that key attributes of Fauvism were founded in Collioure, making us and Leymarie right to consider Collioure's significance on Fauvism. A number of features that are primarily considered Fauvist were founded in Collioure and the two Fauvist artists, Derain and Matisse, who spent time in Collioure, developed their styles there. Collioure is a small fishing village in southern France with Spanish influence and the landscapes and colors experienced there by Matisse and Derain were incorporated and in turn developed their own artistic style. For example, in the early summer, when Derain had just arrived, he painted 'Boats at Collioure' (1905), in this painting he used very precise brush strokes and a lot of paint to demonstrate texture (which is a characteristic influenced by Post-Impressionism , by artists such as Van Gogh), such as ripples on water, however, as his style developed towards characteristics that are now considered Fauvist, he moved away from divisionism and began to use more blocks of colour, he said Derain himself, "I must eradicate everything that involves division of tones." The move away from divisionism is a key movement in the development of Fauvism and Collioure can be seen as responsible for this development and so Leymarie is justified in saying that Collioure it was the birth of Fauvism. A second development in the Fauvist movement took place while Matisse and Derain were in Collioure were their use colors. They discovered light and how to reflect temperature in their paintings; express warmth through bright colors and the absence of shadows. It could be argued that they were already using non-naturalistic colours, but it was the way they used color that influenced Collioure. Bright, vivid colors were used all around, “a blonde, golden light that eliminates shadows,” and if they were going to paint the shadows then the shadows would be painted with colorsequally vibrant, “every shadow is a whole world of brightness”. A great example of this is Derain's "View of Collioure" (1905) where the colors are explosive, both the light and the few painted shadows. Color was also used to express warmth; color became more than just an expression of the painter's emotion, but as a way to allow the viewer to experience the landscape, not only emotionally, but almost physically, the warmth and brightness. Color was made even more important to the Fauves in Collioure. Other developments of Fauvism established in Collioure were the use of canvas as colour, to tie the whole painting together as a strong, unified work that lies flat on the canvas. The idea of ​​flatness was also shown through the lack of perspective or depth. Both Matisse and Derain used a continuous pattern of colors to eradicate any sense of depth, for example, in Matisse's "The Open Window" (1905) he uses similar colors in the foreground and background so that the inside and outside they mirror each other and appear to be at the same depth. We therefore see that the many characteristics of Fauvism developed in Collioure by two of Fauvism's leading artists appear to justify Leymarie's claim that Collioure was the birth of Fauvism. However, there is also reason to believe that Collioure and the developments that followed there are in fact not responsible for the development of Fauvism. Collioure is seen as a place of innovation for Matisse and Derain, but it could be argued that the elements of Fauvism that we attribute to Collioure were already present in their art. For example, in 1904, a year before Matisse went to Collioure, he painted "Luxury, Calm and Desire", where we see present many of the characteristics that we attribute to having been created in Collioure, such as the use of color to create the sense of warmth and vibrant color that act as shadow and lack of depth. Another characteristic attributed to Collioure is the use of canvas in the painting, but we see it used again in 1899 in the "Study of a Nude". Of course there are some features that were developed predominantly in Collioure, mainly the way in which color was used, but it could be argued that these features developed in Collioure are no more important to Fauvism than those developed elsewhere. There were a number of other influences on Fauvism developed outside of Collioure. The first of these influences is Vlaminck, who was not present at Collioure and yet is considered one of the leading artists of the movement. Vlaminck himself said: “What is Fauvism? It's me." He has been identified, rightly, as an important person in the development of the Fauvist style, yet he was not at Collioure, and so this seems to suggest that Collioure was not the birth of Fauvism. 'Les Fauves' means wild beasts, and it is Vlaminck who seems to paint in this wild style the greatest of the three main artists as he painted "instinctively, without any method" and was probably the best at using color to convey emotions, "we were always drunk with colour" (he was inspired by Van Gogh's emotional use of colour).Vlaminck's instinctive, wild and expressive use of color is considered key to Fauvism and was developed outside of Collioure, thus suggesting that Collioure was not the birth of Fauvism Alternatively, it could be argued that Chatau was the birth of Fauvism and Derain painted there together for 15 months and it was one of the few places, like Collioure, where Fauvist artists collaborated and it is questionable why Collioure is rated higher. above of Chatau as an influence on Fauvism as it was at Chatau where Derain and Vlaminck first began to use landscapes as the main subject and landscapes are considered..