FRENCH ARTIST COMMUNITIES TALK 4: THE FAUVES

Sat 21 Feb 2026, 11am–12pm

At the Museum and Online

This event takes place in-person at the Museum, and online via Zoom.

Tickets are £8 each. Booking is essential.

Tickets will be available to book soon

With Juliet Heslewood, Author and Art Historian

The last in a series of four talks examining four communities of French artists: The Barbizon school, the Painters of Pont Aven. Van Gogh and Gauguin in Arles, and The Fauves – the ‘Wild Beasts’ of the Mediterranean.

Just over a 100 years ago, St Tropez was a small fishing village on the Mediterranean, accessible only by boat. The painter Signac, who loved sailing, encouraged others to join him there.

When Matisse visited, he, like others, followed Signac’s Pointillist style but on reaching Collioure, further along the coast, he pursued his own ideas, struck by the brilliant sunlight and dared to use colour in a vibrant un-naturalistic way. He was joined by Derain who painted in a similar style that caused them to be called Fauves – wild beasts.

Together with others, they created a startling view of the coast that was innovative but well represented their unique experience of this popular part of the world.