In the autumn of 1905, in one room of the Salon d'Automne in Paris, the paintings of Henri Matisse and his friends hung together: colours that knew no shadow, cared nothing for realism, applied like a shout straight from the tube. The critic Louis Vauxcelles, pointing to a classical sculpture in the middle of the room, called it "a Donatello among the wild beasts (les fauves)." The mocking word became the movement's name: Fauvism.

At the centre of the scandal was Matisse's "Woman with a Hat." In this portrait of his wife Amélie, the face was not flesh-coloured but woven from strokes of green, purple, orange, and blue. Hat, dress, background — all were intense colours that collided with one another and paid no heed to reality. Viewers were furious; some tried to attack the painting. But that was exactly Matisse's aim: colour need not give the "correct" tone of an object; it could carry emotion and order on its own.

Fauvism was a short-lived movement (about 1905–1908), but its influence endured. It carried the "liberation of colour" begun by Van Gogh and Gauguin to its extreme and opened the way to everything that followed — German Expressionism, abstract painting. Matisse remained all his life the master of colour and flat form; this painting is the first bold step on that long road.

Tellingly, those who bought the painting amid the scandal were the American collectors Gertrude and Leo Stein, who gave Matisse both material and moral support. That a painting is found "ugly" is often the sign that it stands a step ahead of its age.