Andre Derain is a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Derain was one of the founders of the Fauve artistic movement along with Matisse. Although fascinated by the world around him, a popular subject among contemporary artists, he wanted to give a much greater appreciation to the expressionistic qualities of paint. His works are characterized by dense, vibrant brushworks that attract the viewer's attention as much as the subject itself.
Derain's interest in primitive masks began after viewing those exhibited at the Negro Museum in London, and he was one of the first to collect tribal art from Africa. It is likely that he was responsible for the interest in primitive elements espoused by Cubist artists such as Picasso and Braque. Derain was briefly interested in Cubist stylistic elements himself but his stylistic exploration of it was very brief.