Jean-Étienne Liotard: Portrait of a Young Woman (c.1760)

“For its beauty, vivacity, freshness and lightness of palette,” Liotard wrote, “pastel painting is more beautiful than any other kind of painting.” Liotard is known for pressing pastel quite forcefully onto the paper to create extra brilliance in order to exaggerate these qualities. This peculiar technique and desire for luminosity is what set him apart…