Pastel

History of the technique of the pastel

The pastel probably was invented in France and Italy at the end of XVIe century and was used by Léonard de Vinci thanks to the impulse of Jean Perréal.

The pastel knows its golden age during the XVIIe century, where its frank colors and its aptitude to accurately imitate fabrics, textures and the lights make it indissociable of the art of the portrait. It is used by many painters like Rosalba Carriera, Charles Le Brun, Robert Nanteuil or Joseph Vivien.

At the XVIIIe century, the pastel knows its apotheosis. It is in particular used by Maurice Quentin of the Tower, the “prince of the pastellists”, who develops a method of fixing of the pastel disappeared today. Jean Siméon Chardin, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau and Jean-Etienne Liotard explores other more spontaneous ways or intimists. The pastel, symbol of the grace of the Old mode, falls in disuse shortly after the Revolution to the profit from the neo-classicism and the oil-base paint.

Although the pastel found its place in the artistic world never again, it will continue to be used, in particular by the impressionist (Edgar Degas) and by the nabis (Edouard Vuillard).

Technique of the pastel

The technique of the pastel is related at the same time with the Dessin and the Peinture. Certain artists use a technique connected with the Fusain based on the use of lines and the shading, others use a technique connected with painting with superposition of thick masses of color.

Specificities

In all the cases, the pastellist applies the sticks of pastel to a support which can be a sheet of paper with coarse grains, of paperboard, of fabric, velvet (or of a coated paperboard of a velvety texture), or a plank of wood. The sticks are friable and leave pigments on the support, while clinging to its pores. The instability of the pastel makes it possible to the pastellist to spread out pigments of pastel over the support in order to mix the colors or to create effects of dissolves.

The possibility of the pastel are very rich. The pastellist can use his sticks in various manners:

use of the song for precise features;

use of the section for the work of surfaces;

use of pastel crushed to spread out it over the support and to produce a zone of fuzzy color.

A controlled pressure and these three techniques allow a great richness of features and textures, but the true force of the pastel is certainly the purity and the vibration of its colors.

The pastellist can at the same time use pure colors (simple application of the sticks), the mixture of colors by fusion (the pastellist spreads out a color over the other) and the optical mixture (the pastellist superimposes features of color).

The instability of the pastel implies a technique of particular conservation because a pastel not fixed is degraded with the least contact. It is thus necessary to fix works during their completion or to store them flat, face painted against a sheet of Translucent paper.

The pastel allows a direct contact between the pigments color and the support because it does not require a liquid binder of type oils. The texture of the support is thus very important because it directly conditions the final aspect of work. The pastellists thus use preferably papers with grain for effects of texture. This last also has the advantage of being saturated less quickly.

The color of the support also has its importance in the composition because the support is very often visible once completed work. It is thus current that a pastellist chooses a complementary paper of color about it to emphasize it.

Material

The pastellist uses a certain number of tools in addition to the sticks of pastel:

of the stumps, which are most generally of the small fabric or twists of paper, making it possible to spread out the pastel over the support with precision, to create dissolves or mixtures of color;

of the brushes or its fingers, for the same finality. The use of the fingers to spread out the pastel allows effects of high degree of accuracy and the massage produced on the fingers of the pastellist is one of the reasons of the reputation of sensuality attached to the pastel;

a sponge, to spread out the pastel, to carry out effects thanks to moisture or to withdraw a layer of pastel;

a gum “bread crumb,” which is related with modeling clay and whose sticking texture makes it possible to retain the particles of pastel. This essential tools with the pastellist make it possible to correct his errors but also to draw into negative by withdrawing color;

a fixative. The pastel being unstable, a finished work is degraded quickly if it is handled or if it is badly preserved. The fixative is chemicals similar to lacquer, available in aerosol or in liquid form. It makes it possible to fix the pigments of color on the support the price of a degradation of the luminosity and a light pasting of the colors.

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