Fautrier is considered a precursor to the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States, sharing similarities with artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning in terms of their approach to abstraction and emotional intensity. He was one of the most important practitioners of Tachisme, a style of abstract painting adopted by some French artists from the 1940s, involving the use of dabs or splotches of colour, similar in aims to abstract expressionism.
He first trained in London at the Royal Academy School of Arts and the prestigious Slade School where he studied under Walter Sickert. By 1922 Fautrier settled in Paris where he started to experiment with colour and monochrome themes, working on etchings, woodcuts and drawings.
