Picturecraft Gallery is proud to announce that we are hosting a show for the Pastel Society from 12:00 on the 22nd of June until the 18th of July.

PASTEL and the History of the Pastel Society.
(Taken from an article by Robin Capon.)

Pastel has many attractive qualities for artists, especially the fact that it combines so readily the immediacy of drawing with a rich and painterly colouring potential. Not surprisingly, since its introduction in the 16th century, it has been used by many of the world’s greatest artists, including Chardin, Quentin de Latour, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Mary Cassat. It was a particularly popular medium in France, and this eventually led to the founding of the Société des Pastellistes in 1870. In England, the first exhibition devoted entirely to pastel was held in 1888, and not long after this the first British pastel society was formed – the Society of British Pastellists. However, mainly due to extremely harsh criticism in the press, this society was short-lived.

A decade later, in the autumn of 1898, in the studio of Marion Gemmell, at Lownes Square in London, a group of artists met to discuss the formation of a new society for pastellists, and this became known as the Pastel Society. George Frederick Watts was elected President, with the founding members including such accomplished painters as George Clausen, Hercules Brabazon Brabazon, William Orchardson and William Holman Hunt.

The first exhibition was organized for February 1899 at the galleries of the Royal Institute of Water Colour Painters in Piccadilly. Soon, the annual exhibition began to attract other prominent artists of the time, such as Whistler and Sickert. Interest and confidence in pastel had once again been restored and the medium began to enjoy the status it had known a century earlier.

By 1915 the membership had increased to 87. In 1921 Samuel Melton Fisher was elected president, a post he held for the next 18 years. He worked tirelessly to improve the standing of the society during a difficult period in its development. From 1926 to 1988 the society held a joint annual exhibition with the Pencil Society - a decision which at first proved very unpopular with many leading critics. The two societies amalgamated in 1988.

Unlike many other societies the Pastel Society continued to stage exhibitions during the Second World War, showing at the Guildhall Gallery and a number of provincial venues after the RI Galleries had been damaged by bombing. Later, exhibitions returned to the RI Galleries, but when the lease expired in 1970 the society joined the Federation of British Artists at the Mall Galleries, which has since remained the venue for the annual exhibition.

The present standing and popularity of pastel owes much to the exciting and varied work of the members of the Pastel Society and, of course, to the direction and enthusiasm of its different presidents over the years. The current president is John Ivor Stewart. As well as the annual exhibition, which remains the highlight of the year’s events, the society organises tutorial workshops, demonstrations and lectures in different parts of the country to promote the medium. It continues to play an important and influential role in the contemporary art scene.