Welcome

Welcome

French manufacturer since 1780

For more than 200 years Pastels Girault craftsmen have been handing down their skills in the manufacture of a single product: the Pastel

Founded in the 18th century, this cottage industry is now preparing its entry into the 21th century. Its own technical continuity means that today its customers can be offered the results of its long-standing experience. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Pastel Girault was rewarded with several prizes in various exhibitions in Paris for its qualities which are acknowledged throughout the world.

Until the 1940s, Girault used to supply several fine arts manufacturers and important stores with pastels. Later the pastels were sold both at the workshop's shop and by Lefranc-Bourgeois. Known as Pastels Girault until 1987, they then used the trademark Quentin de la Tour until 1995.

Its technical mastery in the various degrees of hardness so usefull to the artist has led Girault to offer its customers a unique density and smoothness with all the required qualities for artistic use including :

	a proper adhesion to the support
	pure, permanent hues that cover well
	possibility of drawing very fine lines

It is uncommon to find so many qualities
within a single product.

Pastel by J. Ousson

The Pastels

A skill

The support

Preserving pastels

Presentation

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The Pastels

526 hues, 82 main colours and 444 shades, mixed with white, with white and black, or with colours, as blue through to orange (numbers 32 to 36), violet to yellow (numbers 133 to 140), brown to green (numbers 190 to 195), or peacock blue (numbers 257 to 264). Please have a look at the shade chart included in the pastels page.

A skill

The pastel is made of white and of pigments that are traditionnally used in fine arts.
Colours are created through the blending of pigments; pastels are made by mixing these pigments with white. Special attention is paid to keeping the hardness of the sticks the same throughout the whole series.
Pastels are made in the following way :

	First of all the pigments and the white are ground.
	Then water is added and the paste is mechanically wrung and moulded into the required shape before being manually cut at the needed length.
	The sticks are numbered and stamped and then left to dry.

Pastel by C. Texier

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The support

The support should be chosen with utmost care - structure, sufficiently textured -for the pastel to adhere properly. Top quality supports, and preferably special pastel paper, are recommanded.

Pastel by P. Martin

Preserving pastels

On the support
It is not necesary to use fixative to keep Pastels Girault looking good. Fixative can, nonetheless, be applied sparingly (and with care)

Preserving the drawing
Work must absolutely be mounted under glass with a space left between the glass and the paper using a thick enough passe-partout.

Presentation

The sticks do not need to be wrapped. They are set on cut-to-size foam and placed in a special display set of drawers to be sold separately, or in wood and cardboard cases to be sold in sets of several sticks.

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Dernière modification / last modification : 01 décembre 2007 .
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