Historical and Cultural Context

Henri Matisse - Woman with the Hat, Paris - 1904-5 http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2933/fauves/fvmatisse.htm

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. - Henri Matisse

An early twentieth century art movement and style of painting in France. The name Fauves, French for "Wild Beasts," was given to artists adhering to this style because it was felt that they used intense colors in a violent, uncontrolled way. The leader of the Fauves was Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954) (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/f/fauvism.html).

Whilst the Impressionists were exploring the perceptions of an impassive, unemotional observer, others were seeking sensation and emotion... The Fauve experience was a liberation -- escape from the conventions of realism to achieve a realization that the artist was concerned primarily with his own personal vision.

1890 - Mississippi institutes a poll tax, literacy tests, and other measures to prevent blacks from voting. This marks the end of the political freedoms freed slaves had enjoyed during federal Reconstruction.

http://www.ibiscom.com/knee.htm

An army of about 500 United States soldiers massacres 300 Sioux Indian men, women, and children in a South Dakota encampment. The Battle of Wounded Knee is the final violent struggle between Native Americans and whites in the United States.

Kaiser William II forces Otto von Bismarck to resign as prime minister. Bismarck had overseen German Unification and was responsible for the beginnings of the German welfare state(http://www.historychannel.com/).

Louis H. Sullivan - Auditorium Building, Chicago - 1886-90 -
http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/A/Auditorium.html

Louis Henry Sullivan, a pioneer of a new skyscraper aesthetic, finishes the Chicago Auditorium and the Wainwright building in St. Louis.

Emily Dickinson's first volume of poetry is published posthumously (http://www.historychannel.com/). See http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=156&CFID=4406216&CFTOKEN=7576930 for her bio, poetry, and links.

1891 - Germany implements the world's first public old-age pension system, proposed by Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, who left office a year earlier.

http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/home.htm

In literature, Thomas Hardy's classic Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Oscar Wilde's more scandalous The Picture of Dorian Gray are published. The Sherlock Holmes mysteries, by Arthur Conan Doyle, also make their first appearance (http://www.historychannel.com/). See http://www.sherlockian.net/ for "everything the web offers about Sherlock Holmes..." Check out this interactive map, https://www.thelondonhelicopter.com/interactive-map-of-london-tourist-attractions/, with historical references and tasty tidbits, courtesy of Bobby. You need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the map. Enjoy!

The United States' first full-service advertising agency opens in New York City.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducts part of the first concert in brand-new Carnegie Hall (http://www.historychannel.com/).

1892 - Gottlieb Daimler invents the carburetor. Throughout the decade, German and French engineers take a leading role in developing automotive technology (http://www.historychannel.com/).

John Muir - 1890 -
http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/

John Muir: naturalist, writer, and conservationist creates the Sierra Club in order to protect America's environment.

Ellis Island replaces Castle Garden as the receiving place for immigrants to the United States (http://www.historychannel.com/).

1893 - The stock market collapses in late June. The worst depression in the United States until the 1930s is on: 600 banks fail, more than 15,000 business firms close their doors, and 74 railroads go into receivership. Both industrial workers and farmers suffer greatly.

New Zealand grants female suffrage. It is the first country in which women can vote in national elections (http://www.historychannel.com/).

1894 - Dahomey becomes a French colony after French and Germans agree on the boundary between the French Congo and the Cameroons, while the British agree to give Belgium control over colonies west of the Upper Nile. But all the European powers continue to eye each other warily during the scramble for Africa.

Alfred Dreyfus -
http://www.usa-people-search.com/content-the-dreyfus-affair.aspx

French court martial convicts Army captain Alfred Dreyfus of passing military information to German agents. The trial stokes French anti-Semitism, and Dreyfus will later be proved innocent, the victim of an anti-Semitic plot.

Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl -
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Herzl.html

“In Basle I founded the Jewish state . . . Maybe in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will realize it.”

Theodor Herzl, a Hungarian Jew, is shocked by anti-Semitism when he goes as a journalist to cover the Dreyfus trial. He founds the political Zionist movement, becoming the head of the Zionist Congress.

The last of the Romanov Czars, Nicholas II, comes to power in Russia.

Radcliffe College for Women opens at Cambridge, Massachusetts, after stiff opposition from Harvard president Charles William Eliot to classes taught by a woman (http://www.historychannel.com/).

V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin) during his arrest in connection with the case of the St. Petersburg "League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." -
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/photo/1895-1917/index.htm

1895 - Russian Marxist Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is arrested after distributing illegal literature and organizing strikes. A few years later, he will be sent to Siberia.

Oscar Wilde's plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Ernest premiere in London. Scandal erupts when Wilde is accused of homosexuality.

Booker T. Washington makes his Atlanta Compromise speech at the Cotton States Exposition, in which he says he will accept Jim Crow laws and the exclusion of blacks from political life in return for educational and vocational training.

A diesel engine, which operates on a petroleum fuel cheaper than gasoline, is invented by German engineer Rudolf Diesel.

Sigmund Freud -
http://freud.t0.or.at/freud/index-e.htm

Studies in Hysteria is published by Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud, ushering in the age of analysis.

The X ray is discovered by Bavarian physician Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, revolutionizing diagnostic medicine.

A Parisian theater hosts the first movie shown in a theater (http://www.historychannel.com/).

1896 - The United States Supreme Court upholds racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, establishing the separate but equal standard. The ruling sets off a new wave of segregation legislation.

Ethiopian warriors defeat Italian troops, and Matebele tribesmen begin a rebellion in Rhodesia, resisting European imperialism in Africa.

March 29, 1898. Today we moved from Canyon City to Sheep Camp. ..The snow has turned to water, so progress has been very difficult. Ida and I pulled a loaded sled together through the canyon and heard many comments about it...Some of the men took off their packs and laughed at us. March 30, 1898. It has snowed and rained all day and water has come through our tent so many of our provisions are wet. It is uncomfortable and unhealthy to live in a tent under these conditions. We must hope that real soon this will be better. - Inga Kolloen's diary, on the Dyea Trail - http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curklon/klondoc003.html

Would-be miners rush on Canada's Klondike, near the Alaskan border, after U.S. prospector George Washington Carmack strikes gold.

French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity in uranium.

The 100 Meters (Heats) - The Olympic Games of 1896 at Panathenaean Stadium.
First day, first event: the 100 m. (heats). Photograph by A. Meyer. Athens, Benaki Museum. -
http://www.forthnet.gr/olympics/athens1896/pictures/docs/1st_heat.html

Greek nationalists, with help from enthusiastic French sportsman Pierre du Fredy, revive the Olympic Games, and the first modern Olympics is held in Athens (http://www.historychannel.com/).

1897 - Theodor Herzl holds the first Zionist Congress. The secular political movement seeks to gain support for building a Jewish state in Palestine.

German forces occupy Tsingtao, China, following the murder of two German missionaries. This provokes a European and American rush for concessions in China.

The cathode-ray tube is invented by German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun, prefiguring the development of the television set.

Nosferatu -
http://www3.sympatico.ca/philippe.lemieux2/nosferat.htm

Having boned up on vampire legends, Bram Stoker pens Dracula. Another recent publication is The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (http://www.historychannel.com/).

Georges Braque - Landscape at L’Estaque - 1906 -
http://www.iatwm.com/200707/SparedfromtheStorm/index.html

Georges Braque | Top

Charles Camoin - Beach at Tangiers - 1913
http://www.tangerexpress.com/21pinturatangerc.asp?Autor=C

Charles Camoin | Top

Marc Chagall | Top

Andre Derain - The Turning Road, L'Estaque - 1906 -
http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Derain.html

Andre Derain | Top

Raoul Dufy - Nude on a Pink Sofa -1902 -
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/f/fauvism.html

Raoul Dufy | Top

Emile Othon Friesz - La Ciotat -1906 oil on canvas
Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson, New York -
http://www.nzine.co.nz/features/Picasso_te_papa.html

Emile Othon Friesz | Top

Henri Manguin | Top

Albert Marquet - Le Havre - 1911 -
http://www.buehrle.ch/works_detail.php?lang=en&id_pic=115

Albert Marquet - Desnudo sobre fondo azul - 1913
http://lacasaenpenumbras.blogspot.com/2007/11/la-casa-en-penumbras-iii.html

Albert Marquet | Top

Henri Matisse - Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) - 1905-06 -
http://www.oir.ucf.edu/wm/paint/auth/matisse/

Henri Matisse | Top

Jean Puy - Barques vertes à Collioure - 1913 -
http://www.jean-puy.com/nu.php

Jean Puy | Top

Georges Rouault - Faubourg - 1910-14 -
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Georges_Rouault.html

Georges Rouault | Top

Painting was an abscess that drained off all the evil in me. Without a gift for painting I would have gone to the bad...I have been able to use my destructive instincts in order to re-create a sensitive living and free world. - Maurice de Vlaminck

Maurice de Vlaminck - Chatou, with Red Tree - 1906 -
http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Vlaminck4.html

Maurice de Vlaminck | Top

Kees van Dongen (1877 - 1968)

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E-Mail Doug at mrdoug@aznet.net or Melissa at melissa.granadatreehousestudio@gmail.com