Pastel practice: XIX century Automatic translate

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XIX century

Realism is an art movement that is based on the principle of an objective representation of reality. In the 19th century, realistic art changed the old idea of ​​beauty and moved away from the canons that were established by the classicists. The realist artist tried, first of all, to reflect the real life that he saw while observing the customs and behavior of people of his time. The theme of the image was such phenomena and realities of life as transport, industrialization, places of entertainment, fashion. It was the pastel, as well as the watercolor, of all the existing painting techniques that was most suitable for capturing the moments of a changing world: it made it possible to capture a fleeting, barely perceptible but, at the same time, realistic, reproducing it in soft highlights, expressive lines and shaded color spots. The fast pastel technique gave realist artists great opportunities, while embodying the spontaneity of the drawing and the colorfulness of the painting.

Museum of Art, Philadelphia (USA). Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875). Daytime sleep. The picture reflects the scene of peasant life, it is made with small quick strokes and, like a real pastel, combines the qualities of not only drawing, but also painting.

The emerging interest in everyday life has determined a change in themes and style. Realist artists such as J. D. G. Courbet (1819-1877) or J. F. Millet (1814-1875) boldly wrote themes that were previously considered trivial or even vulgar. Over time, the work of these masters received a well-deserved mark and were recognized as works of art. Their style, characterized by apparent negligence, has become a model of artistic style for a whole generation of impressionists. At that moment, a turning point in thinking occurred, and in the first place, when evaluating a work of art, skill and grace of execution came out, replacing the theme that prevailed there earlier.

Impressionism. The heyday of pastel painting

The pastel reached its greatest prosperity in impressionism. The Impressionists tried to express reality by color, believing that this is the most striking means of artistic expression, and pastel, like nothing else, was suitable precisely for this purpose. All the best impressionist artists worked in this technique, pastel very often occupied a central place in the work of these people.

Divisionism

The principle of this technique is to use pure, unmixed colors that are applied individually in very small strokes, while creating the optical illusion of mixing. Colors are mixed only in the perception of the viewer, and not on the canvas or palette, so that the works of the Impressionists are rarely seen liveliness and rainbow. Divisionism and similar pointillism were first used by P. Signac and J. Cera.

Museum of Fine Arts, Dijon (France). Edouard Manet (1832-1883). Model for the painting "Bar Foley Berger". Manet is the creator of a large number of portraits of pastel, marked by smooth transitions of color tones and velvety texture.

Impressionism Technique

The technique of impressionism originated in the process of painting from nature. Impressionist artists, wanting to catch the changes in the movement or illumination of the figure, developed a jerky, nervous and at the same time fast and confident manner of writing. The divisionism that developed from here (the imposition of many separate strokes of pure color) helped to supplant the semitones and gray shades that were inherent in the academic art of previous years, and was able to pave the way for new color effects.

Private collection. Joaquin Mir (1873-1940). Almond trees in bloom. The work, developing the techniques of divisionism, it demonstrates the wide possibilities of pastels using the technique of individual strokes.

Thyssen-Bornemisis Collection, Madrid (Spain). Edgar Degas (1879-1917). The dancer on stage (Green dancer). The expressiveness of a bold composition is obtained by a game of color and light, which is created by energetic strokes and spots (this technique has become a role model for many pastelists of the XX century).