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Pastel is pure pigment, the same pigment used in all art media.
When properly framed, it is the most permanent of all when applied
to archival ground. Pastel has no liquid binder that may cause the
surface to darken, fade, yellow, crack or blister with time. No other
medium has power of color or stability as pastel. It does not oxidize
with the passage of time.
Pastel has been identified in works of art from about 1500
AD. Leonardo, the most prominent proponent is credited with the first
known use of pastel in his portrait of Isabella D'Este (1499). Venetian
artist, Rosalba Carriera (1664-1754) transformed pastel painting into
an autonomous independent art form. Chardin, as well as notable artists
later in the 18th and 19th centuries, Delacroiz, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt,
Whistler, Hassam and Chase were among the many who employed combinations
of techniques, broadening the pictorial subject matter in pastel.
Today pastel paintings enjoy the stature of oil and watercolor
as a major fine art medium. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's recent
acquisition of "Gustavus Hamilton, Second Viscount Boyne, in
Masquerade Costume" (1710-1746), a stunning pastel portrait by
Rosalba Carriera, is splendidly displayed amidst period furniture
and decorative arts. One of Degas' most fascinating pastels, "Au
Musse Du Louvre (Miss Cassatt)," was sold this year at Sotheby's
for $16.5 million. |
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