Portrait of Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven Years of Age (detail), 1755–56, Jean-Étienne Liotard. Pastel on vellum. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Eighteenth-Century Pastel Portraits
GETTY CENTER
The Getty Center
This is a past event
Pastels—dry, satiny colors, manufactured in sticks of every hue—enjoyed a surge in popularity during the eighteenth century, becoming, for a time, the medium of choice for European portraiture. This display of pastels from the permanent collection explores the specific physical properties that made this medium so appealing to eighteenth-century portraitists and their patrons.