Maurice de Vlaminck was one of the principal artists of the Fauve Movement, a group of modern artists that emphasized the use of intense colors. The Fauvists, which included André Derain and Henri Matisse, were active as a movement from 1904 to 1908, including at the controversial Salon d’Automne exhibition in 1905, where critics panned the new style and coined the name “fauves,” or “wild beasts.”
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Vlaminck was born in Paris to Edmond Julien, a Flemish violinist, and Joséphine Caroline Grillet, a pianist. The young Vlaminck became a musician and started painting in his teens. He studied with painter Henri Rigalon in 1893, shortly before joining the army. Toward the end of his enlistment he met the aspiring artist André Derain and the two began a lifelong friendship. With the end of his military service in 1900, Vlaminck and Derain rented a studio together for a year before Derain left for his own term in the army. During the next few years Vlaminck earned a living as a musician and violin teacher at night while painting during the day. He also wrote several pornographic novels, which Derain illustrated.
After the dramatic premiere of the Fauvists in 1904-1908, Vlaminck traveled to London in 1911 and then back to France in 1913, where he again painted with Derain. He returned to the military during WWI and was stationed in Paris. After the war he remained in France, often painting along the Seine. He detested Cubism and particularly Picasso, who he blamed for taking French art in directions away from Fauvism, but was an admirer of Van Gogh and Cézanne.