Nicolas Party – Splendeurs du Pastel de la Renaissance à Nos Jours

In the spring of 2018 the Fondation de l’Hermitage will present a major exhibition on the art of pastel down the centuries. Around a hundred works from private and public collections in Switzerland will be shown, offering a history of this fascinating technique from the early masters of the Renaissance to contemporary works, taking in the 18th century portrait artists, the landscapes of the Romantics, the Barbizon School and avant- garde explorations of the late 19th century.

The exhibition will showcase dazzling masterpieces housed in Swiss collections. Starting with the remarkable group of pastels preserved at the Hermitage – including the well known Danseuses au repos by Edgar Degas – it will include exceptional works by Federico Barocci, Jacopo Bassano, Rosalba Carriera, Jean-Etienne Liotard, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, Jean- Baptiste Perronneau, Jean-Siméon Chardin, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-François Millet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Odilon Redon, Fernand Khnopff, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Maurice Denis, Alexandre-Théophile Steinlen, Egon Schiele, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Kees van Dongen, Augusto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Balthus, Sean Scully and Nicolas Party.

Through this unusual selection of the highest quality, the Fondation de l’Hermitage will offer visitors an exclusive opportunity to discover works that are seldom put on public show, still less as a group, and to explore a medium that has been used in experiments of all kinds, in which the power of pure colour is expressed with lightness and grace.