Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Van Gogh Museum, recently attended an intensive seminar focusing on the (historical) fabrication of pastels, and the scientific and technical study of the works produced by artists in this beautiful but friable medium.
The seminar, held from 25 March to 3 April 2025, was organised by the Centre de Recherche pour la Conservation (Paris), the University of Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum and the University of Chicago, and was supported by the Getty Paper Project. Nearly twenty curators, conservators and conservation scientists from a number of countries participated in the programme.
Prominent collections
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, artists were drawn to pastels for their brilliant colours and powdery textures, as well as for the ease and speed with which the medium could be used on location. Eighteenth-century portrait artists travelled from court to court to make portraits of the prominent figures of their time. In the nineteenth century, artists started to draw public life, away from the studio, and benefitted from the unparalleled brilliance of pastel colours.
During the seminar, the participants visited the extensive collections of the Rijksmuseum, the Museum Antoine Lécuyer and Musée d’Orsay, studying and comparing the materials and techniques used in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pastels. At the Van Gogh Museum, pastel works by artists including Jean-François Millet, Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon were closely examined. The participants delved into the complex artistic techniques andindividual use of the medium, but also into issues related to identification, discolouration, framing, preparation, and the special supports.
