Pastels are dry chalks made of pigment and a weak, non-waxy binder that serves to hold the pigment particles together in the form of a chalk stick. These sticks come in several degrees of hardness, from very soft to medium hard. They can be applied with a sharp point or broadly with the side of the pastel stick and rubbed in with the fingers.

In prehistoric periods, images were made on walls of caves with natural chalks and clays. Pastel technique as it is known today was practiced in the middle of the seventeenth century by portrait artists like Robert Nanteuil (1625-78) and in the eighteenth century by Maurice Quentin de la Tour (1704-88). Its use was continued through thenineteenth century by Manet, Degas and Renoir and in the twentieth century by Picasso, Redon and Chagall.

Since pastels are applied in the form of dry chalk, colors remain very much the same as in the pigments from which they are made. Pastels are as lasting as painting of any medium and keep the range and clear intensity of the original pigments much more than does oil or encaustic technique.

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