Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Old Pastel Masters
James Whistler, The Cemetery
May 6, 2013
James Abbott McNeill Whistler “Cemetery”
Artist: Whistler, James Abbott McNeill
The Cemetery, 1880
Pastel on brown paper
This sheet, made early on in Whistler’s stay in Venice, features the cemetery island and church of San Michele in the brilliant light of day. With a heavy application of pastel, the artist renders the gleaming marble of the Renaissance structure, the cypress trees within the cemetery walls, and the canopied funeral boat at left. Short strokes and zigzagging lines make up their vivid reflections in the rippling water. Whistler probably sketched the scene aboard a gondola. Find more works by Whistler in Whistler’s Venice book.
Dimensions: 203 x 301 mm.
source: Frick Collection
Click on the image to see it in a higher resolution.
Camille Pissarro, Eugene Murer at His Pastry Oven
March 30, 2013
Camille Pissarro “Eugene Murer At His Pastry Oven”
Artist: Camille Pissarro, 1877
Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 65 x 88 cm
Gallery: Private Collection
source wikipaintings.org
Click on the image to see it in a higher resolution.
Jean-Francois Millet, Narcissi and Violets
March 6, 2013
Jean-Francois Millet, “Narcissi and Violets”
Artist: Jean-Francois Millet, c.1867
Title: Les narcisses et les violettes
Technique: pastel on paper
Dimensions: 40 x 50 cm
Gallery: Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
source: wikipaintings.org
Pablo Picasso, Women in Green
December 20, 2012
Pablo Picasso “Women in Green”
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973)
Pastel on tan paper board
20 3/8 x 14 1/4 in. (51.8 x 36.2 cm)
Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Loeb Gift, 1961 (61.85)
© 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Source: Met Museum
Eugène Delacroix, A Garden Path at Augerville
December 10, 2012
Eugène Delacroix “A Garden Path at Augerville”
Eugène Delacroix – circa 1855
Title: A Garden Path at Augerville
Height: 30 cm (11.81 in.), Width: 42 cm (16.54 in.)
Medium: Drawing – pastel on paper
Istvan Nagy, Self-portrait
October 11, 2012
Istvan Nagy Self-portrait
Nagy, István (1873-1937)
Self-portrait, 1926s
Pastel on paper
Museum: Hungarian National Gallery
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Size: 45,5×42 cm
Stanislaw Wyspianski, Girl with Violets
September 28, 2012
Stanislaw Wyspianski “Girl with Violets”
Stanislaw Wyspianski
“Girl with Violets”, 1896
pastel, 46 x 31.5 cm,
National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
Click on the image to see it in a higher resolution.
Old Pastel Master: Francis Cotes
September 26, 2012
Francis Cotes Collage
Francis Cotes (1726 – 1770) was an English painter, one of the pioneers of English pastel painting, and a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768.
The son of an apothecary, Francis Cotes trained in the 1740s as a portraitist in pastels and oils. An early pastel portrait gained him recognition and even inspired a love poem, “Address to Celia’s picture.” By the 1760s, he had achieved wide-reaching success as the pre-eminent pastel painter in England. Cotes helped found the Society of Artists and became its director in 1765. Three years later he became a founding member of the Royal Academy. In his last decade, Cotes began to paint more in oil, a medium less labor intensive and more profitable than pastel. However, he remained renowned as a pastelist: John Russell wrote his famous 1772 treatise, The Elements of Painting with Crayon, as an explanation of Cotes’s pastel technique, and Cotes was referred to as “the Rosalba Carriera of England.” His inventive compositions, dramatic use of saturated color, bold handling of line, and informal naturalism contributed to Cotes’s fame. Tragically, his premature death at age forty-four cut short his career.
source: Getty Museum, LA
Jules Cheret, Masquerade
July 17, 2012
Jules Cheret “Masquerade”
Jules Cheret, from 1890
Title: Masquerade
Pastel on Canvas
Size: 36×27 cm
Click on the image for a higher resolution.
Edgar Degas’ Last Painting
June 12, 2012
Edgar Degas "Two Dancers Resting I"
This painting (click to enlarge) is believed to be one of the last or the last pastel painting made by Edgar Degas, with his eyesight almost completely gone. Degas’ visual decline began at age 36, shortly after enlisting in the National Guard during the Franco Prussion war, due apparently to a form of retinopathy. By his forties, Degas developed a loss of central vision. Painting became even more difficult, he had problems in distinguishing colors and later on asked his models to identify the colors of his media. His vision became progressively worse, and by 1891, at age 57, he could no longer read.
Degas never specifically described the impact of his vision on his art. As his eyes worsened, Degas changed media from oils to pastels, which are looser and easier to work with and require less precision. Difficulties in color differentiation may have contributed to the bold coloration of Degas’ later works. A decline in contrast sensitivity and acuity is demonstrated in the progressively wider strokes evident in his later works. Degas’ retinopathy also accounted for his move into sculpture, printmaking, and photography. While some of the changes in his work may be attributable to stylistic changes and personal development, his changing vision almost certainly played a role. It is possible that some of Degas’ greatness as an artist is attributable to his visual loss. Renoir, for example, said of Degas: “Had he died at 50, he would have been remembered as a good, competent artist, nothing more.”
Source: Vision and Aging Lab
