With Matisse, André Derain was a leading figure of the short-lived movement in French painting called Fauvism, which was prevalent between 1901 and 1907. It was the critic Louis Vauxcelles who used the word "fauves" to describe a group of artists exhibiting at the Salon d'Automne in 1905. The term, meaning "wild beasts", was intended to be derogatory, but was adopted by the artists, whose work was characterized by an expressive rather than naturalistic use of colour, emphatic brushwork, and formal simplification. Derain's depiction of this resort area outside the port of Cannes is a perfect example of Fauve painting. Blue, mauve, salmon, and beige-coloured mountains create a lively and expressive backdrop for luminous trees with mauve, red, and blue trunks that animate and energize the scene. Note the contrast in style between the mountains, painted with local patches of broad colour, and the trees, which are formed by quick, vibrant brushstrokes. Derain flattens the space, holding the composition together by the rhythmic pattern of the surface.