When: closing January 26, 2020
This display of pastels is not getting the publicity of the Verrocchio exhibit upstairs on the Main Floor, but if you're at the National Gallery before the end of the month, it's well worth a visit. The introductory wall notes tell me that pastel is one of the most versatile and beautiful materials in the history of art, and I cannot disagree. Plus, these fragile works are almost never on display, so if you don't see them now, you may never get another opportunity!
Pastel is a sort of artificial chalk - it's made of pigment, white opaque filler and binder, then shaped into sticks and dried. A case of pastels given by Mary Cassatt (one of my favorite artists) to a friend is on display, so you can see exactly what a pastel is.
The show is arranged chronologically; the first room is full of 18th century French portraits that look very much like painting. Everything's very ornate and formal and exquisite. One expects Louis XIV to stroll in at any moment.
In the second room, we move onto 19th century England, where the pastels are more like drawings. We see landscapes, and the verdure of the English countryside. We're not completely done with the French, however, as there are a large number of Degas dancers.
In the final room (this is not a terribly large show), we move into the 20th century and modern art. There's a Roy Lichtenstein and a Jasper Johns on display. Some of the works are more like painting and some are more like drawing. The piece I liked the best was William Merritt Chase's "Study of Flesh Color and Gold." It's a beautiful combination of fine, precise drawing of a model, with a blurred, painting-like background. Captivating.
Verdict: This is a very interesting show, that's small enough to see easily in a lunch hour. The interactive screens in the first two rooms allow for much closer examination of the pastel techniques. One hopes the National Gallery is planning to do more of this in future.
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