Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/954

Rh always be secured without fear of that loss of brilliancy commonly attendant on the mixing of colour on the palette. Moreover, the fact of pastel being dry permits the artist to leave his work and take it up again as he may choose; and he is free from many of the technical troubles and anxieties natural to oil and watercolour painting. Apphed with knowledge, pastel, which has been likened for delicacy of beauty to " the coloured dust upon the velvet of butterflies' wings," will not fall off. It can, if desired—though this is hardly necessary or desirable—be " fixed," most commonly by a fixatif. If intending so to treat his work, the artist must paint in a somewhat lighter key, as the effect of the fixing medium is slightly to lower the general tone. The fixatif Lamaze is considered the best, but the general consensus of opinion among artists is against the use of any such device. This preparation has the advantage of leaving the colour unchanged, even though it dulls it; shellac fixatif has the effect of darkening the work.

The inherent qualities of pastel are those of charm, of subtlety, softness, exquisite depths of tone, unsurpassable harmonies and unique freshness of colour, sweetness, delicacy, mystery all the virtues sought for by the artist of daintiness and refinement. Pastel-painting is essentially, therefore, the art of the colourist. Now, these very quahties suggest its imitations. Although it is unfair to relegate it—as fashion has foolishly done for so long—to the bunch of pretty trifling which Carlyle called " Pompadourisms," we must recognize that a medium which suggests the bloom upon the peach is not proper to be employed for rendering " grand," or even genre subjects, or for the covering of large surfaces of canvas. It is inappropriate to the painting of classic compositions, although in point of fact it has been so used, not without success. It is best adapted to the rendering of still life, of landscape and of portraiture. But in these cases it is not advisable to aim at that solidity which is the virtue of oil-painting, if only because oil can bring about a better result. The real reason is that, in securing solidity, pastel tends to forfeit that lightness and grace which constitute its special charm and merit. Strength belongs to oil, tenderness and subtlety to pastel, together with freshness and elegance.

The pre-eminent technical advantage, in addition to those already mentioned, is the permanence of the tones. In watercolours there is an admixture of gum and glycerin which may attract moisture from the air; and, besides, the pigment is used in very thin washes. In oil-painting not only does the oil darken with age but sometimes draws oxygen from a pigment and changes its hue. In pastel the colour is put on without any moist admixture, and can be laid on thick. Moreover, the permanence may arise from the method of manufacture. In a very rare work. The Excellency of the Pen and Pencil (1668), a chapter on " how to make pastils" [sic] " of several colours, for drawing figure, landskip, architecture, &c., on blew paper," describes the manner of grinding up the pigments with grease. This used to be the secret of pastel—that every grain of colour was separately and securely locked up in grease, and so was secured from any chemical change that might have come about through contact of the colours with one another or with the atmosphere. With pastel nothing of the kind could occur; and the works of Rosalba Carriera in Italy, of Quentin Latour, Peronneau, Watteau, St Jean, Paul Hoin and Chardin in France, and of Russell and Cotes in England—to name no others—testify to the permanency of the colours. Some manufacturers nowadays employ gum as the binding medium; others beeswax (which at one time was more frequently used than it is at present); others, again, a very small proportion of tallow, and sometimes a little soap. But this introduction of binding media is now adopted only in the case of certain colours. Whether the point or edge of the stick be used (as in pastel drawing), or the side of it, helped with the tips of the fingers (as in pastel painting), the result is equally permanent; and if, when the work is done, it be struck two or three times, and then touched up by hand-crayons, no dropping of colour from the paper need ever occur. The drawing is made on a grained paper that will hold the chalk, or on a specially manufactured toothed cloth. The French paper known as gras gris bleuté is employed by certain of the leading pastellists. The crisp touches of the pastel can be placed side by side, or the " vibrations " which the artist seeks may be obtained by glazes and superposed tones. It should here be mentioned that about the year 1900 M. Jean-François Raffaelli produced in Paris sticks of oil colours which he claimed would in a great measure replace painting with the brush. Although the system was widely tried and many good pictures painted in this method, it was found that the colours became dull, and such vogue as these " solid paints " enjoyed for a time has to a very great extent disappeared.

The art of pastel, as M. Roger Ballu expressed it, " was slumbering a little," until in 1870 the Société des Pastellistes was founded in France and met with ready appreciation. With many artists it was a matter of " coloured chalks," as, for example, with Millet, Lhermitte and Degas in France, and with Whistler in England. With the majority the full possibilities were seized, and a great number of artists abroad then practised the art for the sake of colour, among whom may be mentioned Adrien Moreau, A. Besnard, Émile Lévy, Machard, Pointelin, Georges Picard, de Nittis, Iwill, René Billotte, Jozan, Nozel, Raffäelli, Brochard (mainly upon vellum) and Lévy-Dhurmer in France; in Belgium, Emile Wauters (who has produced a great series of life-sized portraits of both men and women of amazing strength, vitality and completeness) and Fernand Khnopff; in Italy, C.Laurenti. P.Fragiacomo and Giovanni Segantini; in Holland, Josselin de Jong; in Germany, F. von Lenbach, Max Liebermann and Franz Stück; and in Norway, Fritz Thaulow.

In England the revival of pastel dates from 1880, when the first exhibition of the Pastel Society was held in the Grosvenor Gallery. The exhibition was a succès d'estime, but after a while the society languished until, in 1899, it was reconstituted, and obtained the adhesion of many of the most distinguished artists practising in the country, as well as of a score of eminent foreign painters. In that year, and since, it has held exhibitions of a high order; and intelligent public appreciation has been directed to the work of the most noteworthy contributors. Among these are E. A. Abbey, R.A.; M'Lure Hamilton, J. M. Swan, R.A.; J. Lorimer, R.S.A.; A. Peppercorn, R. Anning Bell, J. J. Shannon, R.A.; Sir James Guthrie, P.R.S.A.; H. Brabazon, Walter Crane, Melton Fisher, Edward Stott, A.R.A.; S. J. Solomon, R.A.; and W. Rothenstein.

See Karl Robert [Georges Meusnier], Le Pastel (Laurens, Paris, 1890); J. L. Sprinck, A Guide to Pastel Painting (Rowney, London); Henry Murray, The Art of Painting and Drawing in Colored Crayons (Winsor & Newton, London). Among early works are: John Russell, R.A., Elements of Painting with Crayons (1776); M.P.R. de C.C., Traité de la peinture aii pastel avec les moyens de prévenir l'alteration des couleurs (Paris, 1788); Rosalba Carriera, Diario degli anni 1720 e 1721 scritto di propria mano in Parigia, &c. (Giovanni Vianelli, Venice, 1793, 4to); Girolamo Zanetti, Elogio di Rosalba Carriera, pittrice (Venice, 1818, 8vo). See also Henri Lapauze, Les Pastels de M. Quentin de La Tour à St Quentin, preface by Gustave Larroumet (Paris); George C. Williamson, John Russell, R.A. (London, 1894).

 PASTEUR, LOUIS (1822–1895), French chemist, was born, on the 27th of December 1822, at Dôle, Franche-Comté, where his father carried on the business of a tanner. Shortly afterwards the Pasteur family removed to Arbois, where Louis attended the École primaire, and later the collège of that place. Here he apparently did not especially distinguish himself, belonging to the class of bons ordinaires. Fortunately at Arbois he came under the influence of an excellent teacher in the person of the director of the collège, who must have discerned in the quiet boy the germs of greatness, as he constantly spoke to him of his future career at the École normale in Paris. In October 1838 Louis was sent with a friend to the metropolis, to a school in the Quartier Latin, preparatory to the École normale. But he did not remain long in Paris, for being a nervous and excitable boy, his health broke down, and he yearned for his home in Franche-Comté. " If only I could smell the tannery once more," said he to his companions, " I should feel well." So home he went, though not for long, as his ambition was still to become a normalien, and to this end he entered the Royal College of Besançon, "en attendant l'heureux jour où je serais admis à l'école normale." Step by step he attained his end; in 1840 he won his "bachelier ès lettres," and shortly afterwards he received an appointment as assistant mathematical master in the college. Two years later he passed the examination for the "baccalauréat ès sciences" 