Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Old Pastel Masters
Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Eve
May 10th
Lucien Levy-Dhurmer "Eve"
Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, from 1896
Title: Eve
Pastel and gouache with gold
Size: 46 x 49 cm (18.11″ x 19.29″)
Collection of M. Michel Perinet (Paris, France)
Click on the image for a higher resolution.
The Pastel Scream
Mar 27th
Edvard Munch "The Scream"
Edvard Munch’s celebrated painting The Scream will be up for sale at Sotheby’s in New York on May 2nd. Edvard Munch made four versions of the composition, which has become the embodiment of angst and existential dread. Three are in Norwegian museums and this one, pastel on board, from 1895, is the only “Scream” still in private hands. It is being sold by Petter Olsen, a Norwegian businessman whose father, Thomas, was a friend, neighbor and patron of the artist. This version of the painting is different from the others in several ways. It is the most colorful of the four, and the only version whose original frame was hand-painted by the artist with a poem describing a walk at sunset (“I felt a whiff of Melancholy — I stood / Still, deathly tired”) that inspired the painting. It is also the only “Scream” in which one of the two figures in the background turns to look outward onto the cityscape.
It is estamated it could bring more than $80 million.
Pastel on Board, from 1895.
Size 59×79 cm.
Update after the sale. May 2nd, 2012.
Munch’s masterpice was sold for $119,922,500 / € 91,033,826 (includes buyer’s premium), in an evening where $330,568,550 marked the highest-ever total for an auction of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s Worldwide. A group of at least eight bidders showed interest in Edvard Munch’s painting, but it would be an over 12 minutes long battle between two highly determined phone bidders that would settle the final selling price.
Old Pastel Master: Edgar Chahine
Dec 13th
Edgar Chahine Collage
Edgar Chahine (1874-1947) was born in Vienna, Austria to Armenian parents and he grew up in Constantinople, Turkey. Chahine and his mother had moved to Venice to escape the persecution of Armenians in Turkey, and there Chahine started studying art in 1892.
At age 21 he decided to travel to Paris and pursue a career in fine arts. He studied painting under formal instruction at the Académie Julian. Chahine began to experiment with the possibilities of print making at the age of 25. Although he had already achieved some success with his paintings, he became fascinated with prints and soon worked exclusively in this medium. His prints were very much in demand by collectors and he won several medals and awards and received many commissions. The death of his fiancé plunged him into a deep depression, and he left Paris to travel through Italy. This voyage gave him the serenity and the inspiration to begin working with new enthusiasm actually etching the day’s drawings onto copper plates in his hotel room each night. He returned with new vigor and expanded his efforts to once again include pastels and oils in his work. Many of Chahine’s prints were lost in a fire in his atelier in 1926, and many more were destroyed in a flood in 1942. Some of the remaining pastel works can be found at the Musee Armenian de France in Paris.
Simon Bussy, Sir Richard Strachey
Nov 30th
Simon Bussy "Sir Richard Strachey"
Artist: Simon Bussy, 1901
Title: “Sir Richard Strachey”
pastel on paper
18 in. x 20 in. (457 mm x 508 mm)
National Portrait Gallery, London UK
Lucian Freud Pastel
Nov 22nd
Lucian Freud "Portrait of Christian Berard"
Artist: Lucian Freud, 1948
Title: Portrait of Christian Berard
conte on paper 46 x 42 cm
Private Collection
Click on the image to see it in a higher resolution.
Jean-Francois Millet, The Knitting Shepherdess
Oct 29th
JF Millet "The Knitting Shepherdess"
Jean-Francois Millet c.1857
title: The Knitting Shepherdess (La Bergère à tricoter)
soft pastel on paper
Dimensions: 33.7 x 25.4 cm
Odilon Redon: The Japanese Warrior Vase
Oct 16th
Odilon Redon "The Japanese Warrior Vase"
Odilon Redon, from 1905
title: The Japanese Warrior Vase
pastel on paper 90.5 by 71.5 cm.
Sotheby’s London, UK.
Click on the image to see it in a higher resolution.
Elements of Painting with Crayons by John Russell
Oct 12th
Here is the link on Google books to “Elements of Painting with Crayons” by John Russell from 1700s. It is an interesting booklet on 40 pages, especially when you consider when it was written. Do not expect fancy color paintings and be prepared to many spelling errors, most likely due to book digitizing software. Russell explains drawing basics, pastel application, approach to painting portraits and drapery. The last section covers materials and explains how to mix your own pastels.
Here are some excepts that might ignite your curiosity 
“When the Student paints immediately from the life it will be most prudent to make a correct Drawing of the Outlines on another paper the size of the Picture he is going to paint which he may trace by the preceding method because erroneous strokes of the sketching Chalk will prevent the Crayons from adhering to the paper.”
“The Student will find the sitting posture with the box of Crayons in his lap the most convenient method for him to paint. The part of the Picture he is immediately painting should be rather below his face for if it is placed too high the arm will be fatigued.”
“Brilliant greens are produced with great difficulty. In Switzerland they have a method of making them far superior to ours. We usually take yellow Oker and after grinding it with spirits mix it with the powder of Prussian blue then temper it with a knife and lay the Crayons on the Chalk without rolling them.”
Old Pastel Master: John Russell
Oct 8th
John Russell "The Sign Writer"
John Russell (1745 – 1806) was an English painter renowned for his portrait work in oils and pastels, and as a writer and teacher of painting techniques.
His extraordinary facility as a pastel painter brought him a fashionable clientele eager to have him execute their portraits. Russell was renowned for his ability to achieve masterful tonal effects by smudging broad areas. He then accented the painting by applying linear flourishes made with a hard-pointed pastels. Most of the hundreds of works he produced were portraits, although he sometimes depicted genre subjects such as children with animals. Russell’s achievements in the art of pastel were the result of his thorough understanding of its technique and materials. In 1780 he published The Elements of Painting in Crayon, one of a handful of known treatises on pastel written in the 1700s. At the time of its publication, it was considered a cornerstone for understanding pastel medium. Russell also experimented with pastel manufacturing, producing a recipe book for pastel making. In 1788 he was elected as a member of the Royal Academy and further distinguished by being appointed as the Painter for king George III.
Barbara Benedetti Newton
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