A return to 1905 and the birth of the Fauves
SFMOMA shines a light on a now iconic painting that changed the direction of art history. Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal places Matisse in a defining moment in history when painting shifted to the Fauvist style, the first French avant-garde art movement of the 20thc century.
Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal shows how an iconic part of the SFMOMA’s personal collection made its mark on art history. The exhibition places the painting in dialogue with Matisse’s peers, subsequent generations as well as artists working today to illuminate the work’s impact over a century later.
The heart of the exhibition restages the public debut of Femme au chapeau in Gallery VII of the 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris. This same gallery inspired the moniker fauve (wild beasts), coined in a review by critic Louis Vauxcelles in the Oct. 17, 1905 issue of the periodical Gil Blas. The space will feature work by all 10 artists represented in the original exhibition and will reunite the greatest number of objects from that gallery since 1905 including works by Matisse, Charles Camoin, Andre Derain, Henri Manguin, Albert Marquet, and Maurice de Vlaminck.
Fauvism is noted by vivid colors, not always found in nature, delivered directly onto the canvas with a level of spontaneity in the brush stroke that likely put the “wild” in wild beasts. Color taken right from a collapsible tube was used to create scenes independent of realistic representations of nature. Andre Derain’s Fishing Boats, Collioure from 1905 describes a scene using patches of non-naturalistic colors that, together, suggest boats and the movement of water. Similarly, Femme au chapeau, the portrait of the artist’s wife, was also comprised of imagery loosely color-blocked in a way that, at the time, seemed disordered compared to more traditional paintings.
Controversy
A natural question might be “How does a painting, or group of paintings, cause a scandal?” To understand the answer is to understand the world in Paris during the early 20th century. Art was a community activity involving a social scene centered on gallery and salon attendance during which art was actively discussed and debated. The Fauvists very likely gained acceptance in some part through their endorsement by prominent American expatriate collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein. The brother-sister collector duo purchased Femme au chapeau on the last day of the 1905 Salon d’Automne exhibition.
Journey of a painting
In 1915, Femme au chapeau made its way to the Paris collection of Leo and Gertrude Stein’s brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Sarah Stein, who brought it from France to the Bay Area in 1935. Matisse’s painting was shown in the United States for the first time the following year in an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMOMA) organized by its founding director, Grace McCann Morley. The painting entered the museum’s collection in 1991 as a bequest of Levi’s heiress Elise S. Haas, who purchased the work from Sarah Stein in 1948. Under the terms of the bequest, Femme au chapeau does not travel, making SFMOMA the exclusive venue for this landmark exhibition.
Other exhibition highlights
Other galleries introduce the painting’s’ model, Amélie Matisse, as both a professional hat-maker, partner, and close collaborator to Matisse. Her headwear will be a jumping-off point to investigate the broader fashions of that era. The final chapters trace how artists have responded to Femme au chapeau over time. Works from his peers during the immediate aftermath of the Salon will be on view combined with artists working today such as Hilary Harkness, Rachel Harrison, and David Hockney as well as Bay Area figurative artists like Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, and David Park who also carried on traditions that can be traced back to Matisse.
The exhibition will also feature a digital interactive film utilizing Google AI to bring to life animated large-scale projections and archival images of the Grand Palais and the left bank apartment of Leo and Gertrude Stein.
Hat party
In celebration of the opening, visitors are invited to wear their favorite hat when visiting the museum on Sunday, May 17. The Koret Education Center on Floor 2 and the Gina and Stuart Peterson White Box on Floor 4 invite visitors to stop by and make their own hats from recycled materials with SCRAP and craft flores de papel.
SFMOMA will host a Free Community Day on May 24, 2026 offering free public programming and free admission to the entire museum, including Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal.
Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal will be on view through Sept. 13.
