Powder and Presence: Pastel Portraits in the Eighteenth Century

In the 1700s, pastel rose in popularity as a favoured medium for both professional and amateur artists. Through Venetian and French influence, British artists embraced pastel for its soft and silky texture – ideally suited to capture the delicate nuances of skin and textiles in portraiture.

Our new display includes portraits by eighteenth-century pastelists from the Holburne’s own collection. Alongside leading European artists, such as Jean-Étienne Liotard and Anna Tonelli, are Bathonian portraitists William Hoare and his son Prince Hoare, as well as the celebrated draughtsman Thomas Lawrence. Unlike oil, pastel’s immediacy made it ideal for quick commissions from Bath’s many visitors, as it required no drying time and a portrait could be completed, framed, and ready to take home within hours.

Image credit: Unknown lady (called Mary Robinson) with a singing child, John Russell (1745 – 1806), 1793. Pastel on paper, purchased from Frank Brown in 1979.