Which art movement was at its peak just before Cubism began?

Fauvism was the art movement at its peak just before Cubism began.

Fauvism was a short-lived but influential movement that came to public attention at the 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris. Its artists used intense, non-naturalistic colors, forceful brushwork, and simplified forms rather than carefully matching the colors seen in nature. The critic Louis Vauxcelles famously called them les fauves, or “wild beasts.”

Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Georges Braque were associated with Fauvism. Braque’s early Fauvist paintings prepared him for the structural experiments that led to Cubism. By 1907–1908, artists including Braque and Pablo Picasso were moving toward more geometric forms, multiple viewpoints, and fractured space.

The chronology makes Fauvism the best answer, although “just before” is a simplification because artistic movements overlap. Fauvism’s main period is usually dated about 1905–1908, while Cubism developed in Paris from about 1907 onward. Expressionism, Pointillism, and Impressionism were important movements, but they were not the immediate predecessor normally identified in this timeline.