Robert Nanteuil, Ca. 1623 - 1678

Talented portraitist, printer, drawer and pastellist, Robert Nanteuil played a decisive role in the history of pastel drawing, participating fully to his development and success. Together with Charles Le Brun, he is in France the first one to use exclusively this coloured medium with which he covers all of his compositions. With Nanteuil, pastel was not subordinate to the other graphic techniques any more; it became autonomous, opening the way to the painters of Madame de Pompadour's time, and to the Perronneaus and La Tour.

This book offers an exhaustive catalogue of drawings and pastels realised after nature.