In reviewing the 1905 Salon d’Automne, an alternative exhibition to the official Salon, one critic likened the work of Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Matisse, and André Derain to that of wild beasts (fauves in French). Although not intended as a criticism, others used the name to attack this new direction in avant-garde art. The Fauves were not a formally unified group, but their style was nevertheless distinct, characterized by their use of vibrant, unmixed paint and rough, spontaneous brushwork. The thick application, explosive color, and subject of Houses at Chatou—possibly one of the works included in the 1905 Salon—reveal the importance of the work of Vincent van Gogh to the Fauves.