Pastels

Exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 12 March - 2 July 2023

The 18th century is considered to be the golden age of pastels. This unrivalled medium for rendering the effects of matter and the velvetiness of skin tone was often restricted to portraits. Out of fashion after the French Revolution, pastels enjoyed a renaissance from the mid-19th to the early 20th century - Degas used them almost exclusively from 1888-1890. The range of pastels then expanded considerably in terms of both shades and textures, opening the door to all kinds of experimentation. The Musée d'Orsay collection bears exceptional witness to this revival.

This exhibition catalogue presents a selection of around one hundred pastels chosen from the five hundred held by the Musée d'Orsay. It highlights the singularity of this medium, which is neither truly a drawing nor a painting, and the immediate relationship with the material that is unique to it. It is structured around eight major themes that highlight the revival of pastels from the second half of the 19th century onwards and reveals works by Millet, Degas, Manet, Cassatt, Redon, Lévy-Dhurmer and many other pastelists.