Watercolors, drawings, pastels
Gouaches
Historically, gouache appeared after watercolor and derived from it. In Ancient Egypt, watercolor can be found on funeral chambers frescoes. In Europe, the closest technique to watercolor is the medieval illuminations method. In the middle Ages, it was considered a secondary technique compared to the classic painting, and was used only for sketches. However, there were some exceptions like Albrecht Dürer, famous German painter who frequently used watercolor in his impressive pictures.
During the 18th century, gouache became a landscape painting technique. In the 19th century, watercolor was mainly a landscape painting technique, as well as a way to add color to etchings, drawings and sketches, especially for botanical and ethnological prints. It is only at the end of 19th century that gouache and watercolor became very popular –as they still are- with artists like Van Gogh (1853-1890), Monet (1840-1926) or Henry Somm (1844-1907), and in the 20th century with Jun Dobashi (1910-1975).
Pastels
The first known pastel painter was Jean Perréal. In 1499 he taught Leonardo Da Vinci his own technique. The oldest existing pastel, Portrait of Louis de Jouvenel wife, was painted by jean Fouquet in 1465. In the 17th century the art of pastel became a recognized painting technique thanks to the works of great pastellists like Jean Marc Nattier and Charles Antoine Coypel. The golden age of pastel was the 18th century, with Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, François Boucher or Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun. Paris became the capital of pastel, and welcomed foreign artsts like Jean-Baptiste Liotard from Switzerland. 19th and 20th centuries also had great pastellists like Degas, Puvis de Chavannes or Toulouse-Lautrec.
