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pastel

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists

pastel A drawing or painting material consisting of a stick of colour made from powdered pigments mixed with just enough resin or gum to bind them. Pastel is applied directly to paper, with no diluent, and a significant difference between this and other methods of painting is that the colour as applied represents the final result—no allowance has to be made for changes during drying. Pastel has the disadvantage, however, of being very fragile and easily dislodged from the paper. This can be counteracted by using a fixative, but fixing is apt to reduce the brilliance of the colour. As they are so delicate, pastels are usually used on a small scale, and they have been especially popular for portraits. They were first used in the late 15th century and their heyday was the 18th century. The medium had a second great flowering in the late 19th century, when several of the Impressionists, most notably Degas, took it up. See also Chalk.

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© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003.

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