The political construction of fragility and French arts policy around 1750

Abstract

The fragility of pastel paintings has always been acknowledged; however, solutions recommended for protecting their delicate surfaces from abrasion and dust shifted quite suddenly. Early eighteenth-century treatises advised glazing these works; from 1747 coating the pastel surface with a dilute varnish was suggested. This paper argues that the shift from glazing to fixing and the intense preoccupation with the development of pastel fixatives in France at mid-century were politically motivated. By acknowledging that fully elaborated pastel was a form of painting in eighteenth-century Europe and by re-examining the issue of fixatives from this perspective rather than from that of their use to preserve works of art on paper, this paper is able to integrate the phenomenon of fixatives for pastel in France at mid-century into the history of the conservation of paintings.

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