Pastel is powdered pigment, rolled into round or square sticks and held together with a binder. It can be blended with finger and stump, or left with visible strokes and lines. The ground used can be toned paper, sanded boards and canvas just to name a few. If the ground is covered completely with pastel, the work is considered a Pastel Painting; a Pastel Sketch shows much of the ground. When protected by glass, pastel is the most permanent of all media, as it never cracks, darkens or yellows.
Historically, its origin can be traced back to the Sixteenth Century, when Guido Reni, Jacopo Bassano, and Federigo Barocci were notable users of the medium. Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1750, a Venitian woman artist, was the first to make consistent use of pastel. Chardin, 1699-1779, did portraits with a hatching stroke, while Quentin de la Tour, 1704-1788, preferred the blended, velvety finish. Other artists including Mengs, Nattier, Copley, Delacroix, Millet, Manet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Redon, Vuillard, Bonnard, Glackens, Whistler and Hassam are the more familiar names, who used pastel as finished work, rather than for preliminary sketches.
Degas was the most prolific user of pastel, and its champion, for he raised it to the full brilliance of oil. His protégé, Mary Cassatt, introduced the Impressionists and pastel to her wealthy friends in Philadelphia and Washington, and thus to the United States. Today, many of our most renowned living artists have distinguished themselves in pastels, and have enriched the world with this glorious and brilliant medium.
