Room 42

The colour in a pastel sits close to the paper’s surface. It can look soft and velvety, or remain visible as separate strokes. Rosalba Carriera and other eighteenth-century artists used the medium for portraits whose skin, hair and clothing invite a close look. Much later, Degas explored different uses for pastel in dancers and bathing figures. Compare a blended passage with a line that has been left exposed. The pictures are fragile because their coloured particles are only lightly held by the surface. Their delicate appearance comes from a material artists could also use with force and bold colour.