(1) The technique of painting in dry colors. Soft sticks are made from finely powdered pigments to which are added small amounts of gum (gum arabic, tragacanth), grout, and sometimes chalk, gypsum, or talc.

(2) A work of art executed in pastel. Pastel sticks are used primarily on rough paper (most often colored), cardboard, treated canvas, chamois, and parchment. The extensive use of hatching in pastel makes the medium similar to graphic art. The pure, luminous colors retain their original freshness and brilliance, and the surface retains a soft, velvety, mat texture. Pastel drawings are sometimes sprayed with a fixative, such as a solution of gum.

It is thought that pastel originated in the second half of the 15th century, when interest in multicolored drawing first arose (J. Fouquet in France). The term pastello first appeared in a late-16th-century treatise by the mannerist theorist G. P. Lomazzo. Pastelists of the 16th and 17th centuries barely went beyond the bounds of traditional drawing (G. A. Boltraffio, B. Luini, L. Carracci, and G. Reni in Italy; H. Holbein the Younger in Germany; J. Goltzius in Holland; and P. Dumonstier and N. Lagneau in France).

In the late 17th century, more painterly tendencies appeared in pastel. In France, J. Vivien used the technique to produce works that were more like paintings than drawings. Pastel developed most fully in the 18th century. Its subtlety, refinement, and soft decorativeness appealed to many artists, including R. Camera in Italy; M. Q. de La Tour, J. B. Chardin, and J. B. Perroneau in France; A. R. Mengs in Germany, and J. E. Liotard in Switzerland.

Pastel was rejected by the neoclassicists precisely for its delicacy, subtlety, and lack of linear tension. Artists working in pastel after roughly 1830 included E. Delacroix, J. F. Millet, E. Manet, A. Renoir, O. Redon, and E. Degas in France. It was Degas who discovered the strong line, vibrant colors, and rich textures possible in pastel. Also working in the medium during this period were M. Liebermann in Germany; A. O. Orlovskii, A. G. Venetsianov, I. I. Levitan, and V. A. Serov in Russia; and M. K. čiurlionis in Lithuania. In the 20th century, P. Bonnard and E. Vuillard of France, M. Cassatt of the USA, H. van de Velde of the Netherlands, and other artists turned to pastel. Soviet artists working in the medium include S. V. Maliutin, E. A. Katsman, V. V. Lebedev, N. A. Tyrsa, and the Kukryniksy group.