Art Appreciation Blog: Post 11: Impressionism and the Revival of Pastels Part I

Line and Colour - Two in One

Mystère ou La Femme à la Mèdaille, 1896
Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer (1865-1953)
35 x 54 cm, pastel and gold highlights on cardboard
Dhurmer La Femme pastel Musee d'Orsay

I have been curious about the pastel technique since the spring of 2023 when I saw the exhibition: Pastels from Millet to Redon in Musée d'Orsay (the painting above was on the promotional material). We learned then that seeing XVII, XVIII, and XIX-century pastel paintings is a rare occasion, as they are extremely fragile to exhibit and to be borrowed between museums.

Pastels are basically layers of dry, colored powder on paper. They have to be protected by glass, but the glass must not touch the surface. They have to be stored vertically and not pulled on sliding racks. Humidity, vibration, and even the smallest shock can cause irreparable damage to the pastel painting. Unlike oil paintings whose varnish should be renewed once every generation, pastels pretty much shouldn't be touched ever.

This unique medium provokes a remarkable sensation of particles' vibration in the viewers' eyes, and colors can mimic skin or fabric textures with a chillingly realistic effect. I had a strange feeling of intimacy, and not just seeing but somehow knowing people in the pastel portraits.

So where does the pastel story start...By now, we shouldn't be surprised:

1499, Milan, Italy. The French invaded Italy, and Louis XII marched into the residence of the Duke of Milan. His court painter met the Duke's court painter, Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo learned from his French colleague, about using colored dry chalk (only white, black, and red at the time) for sketches on prepared paper. He further developed the technique and was the first painter to do pastel painting (none of these have survived). Michelangelo, his lifetime contender used pastels as well.

In the years and centuries to follow, numerous pastel color nuances were developed, and finally, in the XVIII century, it became the most popular painting method.

Portrait of a Small Girl, Holding Cherries, 1780

John Russell (1745-1806)

62 x 46 cm, pastel on blue paper

Cherry girl Russell Louvre

To pivot for a second from the French and Italian artists, above is an exquisite pastel painting by the British painter John Russell. Watching a Video presentation of 17th and 18th-century Pastel paintings in the Louvre, we can learn that this painting is one of the most popular/ photographed ones by visitors. If you join me deeper in the rabbit hole, you can find out on the Blog by the world's best pastel connoisseur Neil Jeffares who this charming girl was, about her rich family and cherry orchards in England.

Self-portrait as "Winter'" 1730/31

Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757)

46.5 x 34 cm, pastel on paper

Rosalba State Art Collection Dresden

The most popular Rococo pastel painter in Europe in the XVIII century was Rosalba Carriera from Venice. She mastered the pastel technique and made portraits of pretty much every important European royal family member during her lifetime. A hundred and some years later, she will be a great inspiration to the Impressionist Berth Morisot.

Archduchess Maria Theresa of Habsburg, 1730

Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757)

45 x 34.5 cm, pastel on paper over canvas

M. Theresa State Art Collections Dresden

In this Video presentation of Rosalba Carriera Exhibition in Dresden we can learn why were pastel portraits so popular in the 18th century: there was a big demand for portraits of young girls for the purposes of marriage politics. They had to be promoted and presented to potential contenders (the mother of Maria Antoinette asked King Louis XVI to send his personal painter as she didn't have a good enough one to present the beauty of her daughter).

Louis XV, King of France, 1720/21

Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757)

50.5 x 38.5 cm, pastel on paper

Louis XV State Art Collection Dresden

Painters had to work fast as the privileged did not want to spend too much time on the sessions and did not want to have many of them. Pastels, easy to pack, transport, and not messy to use, were the perfect medium for quick portrait sketches which were to be finished later by the painter. Additionally, the rich, women and men, used a lot of makeup at the time and a ton of powder on their faces and wigs. Pastels perfectly reflected that and gave subjects an angelic, idealized image.

In every art history book, we can find that two other great pastelists of the XVIII century are Maurice Quentin de la Tour and Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, but here, I want to present another woman painter who excelled as a pastelist - Marie Suzanne Roslin. She was accepted into the French Royal Académie of Paintings and Sculptures as one of only 4 women (that was by the rule the maximum number of women artists allowed in Academy at the same time!?). Her life was full of romance and love, but she died young at 38 from breast cancer.

Self-portrait with Portrait of Maurice-Quentin de la Tour, 1770

Marie Suzanne Roslin (1734-1772)

pastel on paper

Private collection

Augustine Suzanne Roslin, the Artist's Daughter, 1771

Marie Suzanne Roslin (1734-1772)

62 x 48.5 cm, pastel

Roslin in National Museum Sweden

As the end of the XVIII century approached, pastels were falling out of favor. The storms of change were coming with the revolutionary years and pastel painters started losing their "clientele". Royal families, their entourages, and the aristocracy in general were chased either into exile or captured and killed. White powder mixed with sweat and blood.

The Face of the Moon, 1795/97

John Russell (1745-1806)

163.5 x 160.5 cm, pastel

Moon by Russell History of Science Museum, Oxford University

There was no blood in the United Kingdom at the end of the 18th century, but the Enlightenment wind blew lace, makeup, and wigs into the background. Here is an extraordinary (in size and in true to the facts) pastel painting of the 'gibbous moon' by John Russell (yes, the cherries girl painter). He came a long way from being a court painter to one of "The Lunatics" as the members of the Lunar Society called themselves, watching the moon through a telescope for twenty years and using pastels in exceptional precision to depict it.

This leaves us in no doubt that the 19th century will bring many innovations, so, about the ones considering pastels, in the next post

Sources:

Exhibition Pastel paintings, from Millet to Redon | Musée d'Orsay

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer — Wikipédia

Mystery and Glitter. Pastels in the Musée d'Orsay. | Musée d'Orsay

Pastels & pastellists: The Dictionary of pastellists before 1800

Conservation of pastels

Pastel Artists : From Masters to Modern Creators (Must follow)

Pastel | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Histoire de la Société des Pastellistes de France | Société des Pastellistes de France

Bing Videos - 12 techniques for pastel

Le Bouquet de marguerites - Jean-François Millet | Musée d'Orsay