Roussillon: The Origin of Modern Art, Collective

It was in the summer of 1905, in Collioure, that Matisse realized the all-powerful help that Gauguin, who had died in the Marquesas Islands two years earlier, could provide him. A pivotal "encounter" - Gauguin never set foot in Roussillon - because Fauvism was born that summer. A "link", then, united these two masters, which could be called "missing", so little, if at all, it has been identified by art history. Far from Paris and its trends, local artists make it up, some famous, others less so: Aristide Maillol, the sculptor from Banyuls; his friend, the painter from Elne, Etienne Terrus; Gauguin's confidant, Georges-Daniel de Monfreid, settled in Corneilla-de-Conflent... Without ever copying the Tahitian, they are his disciples, imbued with his true message dedicated to "emotion", to the "mysterious center of thought". A wealthy winegrower and collector, Gustave Fayet, owned nearly one hundred works by this admired artist. Matisse, joined in Collioure by the young Derain, entered this brotherhood; in 1905, he crossed an "invisible border" from which all modern art would emerge.