Pastel – powdered pigment combined with an inert mineral and a binder – (not oil pastel or chalk) used alone or combined with other media I don’t often see in creative work made today.
An interesting medium: fragile; but matted surfaces with brilliant colours possible; in diffuse light, so unlike the shine of oils and acrylics.
Fragile because pastel is a powdered pigment. It is applied to a surface capable of seizing and holding the design without dispersing the powder.
A box of pastel crayons
Diffuse light because powder is opaque and light is reflected from the many facets of powder and the air pockets in between them.
I like to be stopped by a work of pastel. The light is reduced wherever they are on exhibit and visitors do not disturb the accompanying quiet.
They have qualities which you don’t find in many works created in other media:
they do not (usually) shout;
modern pastel canvases are rarely large but are often dense with narrative emotion.
Pastels of the 18th and 19th centuries, many of portraits, some quite large, are incomparable for their intimation of the interior life of a person or scene.
Pastels are so conversationally appealing that they make a strong case for our continuing to listen to their quiet comments from the sidelines of our art tradition where they have been pushed in our flashy-image, noisy, boasting world.
These pastel paintings are often just the loveliest.
Head of a Bearded Man, 1715, pastel with black chalk on blue laid paper.
Benedetto Luti, born Florence 1666, died Rome 1724. Philadelphia Museum of Art
Study of a Boy in a Blue Jacket; pastel and chalk on blue laid paper, laid down on paste paper, 1717.
Benedetto Luti, 1666-1724, Italian. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Claude Dupouch, c. 1739, pastel on blue paper, mounted on canvas.
Maurice-Quentin de la Tour, 1704-1788, French. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
An Elegant Young Lady with a Lace Cap, 1750-56, pastel on beige prepared canvas.
Pietro Rotari, 1707-1762, Venetian. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The actual gallery is visible in both images.
Portrait of a Man, 1757, pastel on blue paper mounted on board.
Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1715-1783, French. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Well-Loved Mother, 1765, pastel with coloured chalks on light golden brown paper.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725-1805, French. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Portrait of a woman, her head turned to the right, wearing an earring, 1770-72, pastel on blue laid paper
Joseph Wright (Wright of Derby), 1734-1797, British. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
This masterful grisaille pastel has not been linked with any actual person
A Meadow at Sunset, c. 1845, pastel on gray-blue paper.
Paul Huet, 1803-1869, French. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
An Infant Asleep in His Crib, 1848, pastel on brown paper.
Adolph Menzel, 1815-1905, German. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Arch of Morning Glories, Study for an oil painting: ‘Basket of Flowers’; 1848-49, pastel on blue paper.
Eugène Delacroix, 1798-1863, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Artist’s Sister Emili, pastel and black chalk on brown paper, 1851
Adolph Menzel, 1815-1905, German. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Apple Blossom, 1878, pencil, charcoal and pastel on paper
a study prepared by Frederic Shields (1833-1911, British) for a painting by Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s (1828-1882, British): A Vision of Fiametta. Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington
Emilie-Louise Delabigne (1848-1910), Called Valtesse de la Bigne, 1879, pastel on canvas. Édouard Manet, 1832-1883, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY from its website
A courtesan of note with many, famous lovers, Manet featured her in her favourite blue, worn to highlight her eyes.
Violinist, Study for ‘The Dance Lesson’, 1878/79, pastel and charcoal on green wove paper, squared for transfer in charcoal.
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
At The Milliner’s, 1881, pastel on 5 pieces of wove paper, backed with paper and laid down on canvas.
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Singer in Green, 1884, pastel on light blue laid paper.
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Degas created more than 700 images using pastel, his most often used medium. He experimented with pastel and developed several techniques including the use of a fixative which has never been duplicated.
Woman Having Her Hair Combed, 1886-88, pastel
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The fixative prevented smudging and allowed him to apply layers of pastel to achieve complexity of colour without reducing the velvety quality of the pastel’s surface.
Southern Italian Woman Dressed for Church, 1885-88, pastel on blue paper prepared with beige gouache
Francesco Paolo Michetti, Italian, 1851-1929. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Study of Flesh Color and Gold, 1888, pastel on paper coated with mauve-gray grit.
William Merritt Chase, 1849-1916, American. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Black Hat, c. 1890, pastel.
Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926, American. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
In the Salon, 1893, pastel and oil on paperboard (with light distortion).
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901, French. Thannhauser Collection at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Young Thomas and His Mother, 1893, pastel on wove paper.
Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926, American. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia from its website
Breadline, 1900, pastel on paperboard.
George Luks, 1867-1933, American. Corcoran Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier, born 1865), 1901, pastel on paper.
Odile Redon, 1840-1916, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Head of a Woman, 1903, pastel.
Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
So unremarkable an image that one wonders whether this would be in the National Gallery were it not a Picasso.
Two Women (One Seated), 1903, pastel on green wove paper.
William James Glackens, 1870-1938. Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia from its website
Fifth Avenue Bus, 23rd Street and Broadway, 1914, pastel and charcoal on gray, washed paper, mounted on board.
Everett Shinn, 1876-1951, American. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Mrs. Wasserman, pastel on black paper, early 20th century
Violet Oakley, 1874-1961, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia from its website
Flower Seller, 1916, pastel on paper on canvas.
Alfredo Ramos Martinez, 1871-1946, Mexican. On display in the Philadelphia Art Museum in 2016
Peasants, 1913, pastel on paper.
David Alfaro Siqueiros, 1896-1974, Mexican. On display in the Philadelphia Art Museum in 2016
Swans (Night), 1917, pastel on paper.
Joseph Stella, 1877-1946, American born Italy. Loan by Adelson Galleries to the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA in 2023
An Orchid, 1941, pastel on paper mounted on board
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
Beauford Delaney, 1901-1979, American active France), pastel on paper, 1943
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC from its website
Untitled (Head of a boy), c. 1967, charcoal and pastel on paper.
Barkley L. Hendricks, 1945-2017, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Grocery-wrapped pears, 1971, pastel on brown paper.
Janet Fish, American born 1938. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Carnival Ride, 1976-77, pastel on buff wove paper.
Edith Neff, 1943-1995, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia from its website
(Untitled) In My Father’s House, pastel on paper; n.d.
Edith Neff, 1943-1995, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia from its website
Between the Clock and the Bed, pastel on paper, 1980.
Private collection loan to a 2021/22 retrospective at the Whitney, NY and the Philadelphia Museum of Art of the work of Jasper Johns, American born 1930
Johns’ pattern and title are taken from Edvard Munch in one of his self-portraits
Italy, 1983, pastel with charcoal on Rives paper
Francesco Clemente, Italian born 1952, active New York. Philadelphia Art Museum from its website
Study for Political Prisoner, 1987-88, charcoal and pastel on heavy wove paper.
Sidney Goodman, 1936-2013, American. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Spiral Form Series #1, 2003, powdered pigment on rag paper
Mary Judge, American born 1953. Woodmere Museum of Art, Philadelphia
This seems to be a stenciled pastel.
The artist folds her paper to form a grid. She uses a pounce wheel to cut small holes in transparent paper.
Tapping pigment over the holes allows the pigment to fall through the holes onto the rag paper. She repeats this process in the next quadrant to obtain repeating and complex patterns.
Breach, 2009, pastel on gray paper.
G. Daniel Massad, American born 1946. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Calm, 2014, pastel on paper.
Lesa Chittendem Lem, American. On display at the Woodmere Museum, Philadelphia in 2017
Shifting Perception, 2019, pastel on paper (with light distortion)
Jill A. Rupinski, American born 1950. Private collection loan to Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2019
A rare, large, all-pastel narrative painting
The Mind is Its Own Place, 2020, charcoal and pastel on paper.
Jennifer Packer, American born 1984. Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum, NY in 2021.
Suggested Occupation 9, 2017-18, acrylic, charcoal, encaustic and pastel in artist’s frame.
Kyle Thurman, American born 1986. Whitney Biennial 2019.
The artist’s work is reacting to suggestions of a possible occupation.
The Shepherd’s Daughter, 2024, pastel.
Carl Weissinger, American born 1949; artist’s collection
A glorious collection spun together on this latest vin de vie! The pastels are allowed in so many instances to just GLOW! Thank you for lacing the canvases together, Sarah.
Thank you, Susannah, as always for your generous comment.