Maurice Vlaminck and Andre Derain were good friends and neighbors in France; they made a spectacular pair. Both were huge and both wore conspicuous clothes. One of Vlaminck's favorite items of costume was a painted wooden necktie. They lived and worked in a seaside suburb called Chatou and invited Matisse to visit them there. Thus began one of the most fruitful associations in modern French art: Fauvism.

Despite their friendship there were wide differences in their personalities as well as many similarities. Vlaminck claimed to despise intellectual pursuits; Derain read enormous numbers of books. Vlaminck called Derain "a hot-house plant"; Derain's father forbade his son to b...