Pastel Society

The Society was founded in 1898 and is sited at 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD. Its Annual Exhibition is open to all artists who work in any 'dry' medium – pastel, pencil, charcoal, chalk, conté, sanguine – and is held at the Mall Galleries, normally in August or September. Past and present members and exhibitors include Anthony Eyton, Bernard Dunstan, Frank Brangwyn, French Impressionists Edgar Degas, Edouard Vuillard, Eugène Boudin, William Orpen, William Nicholson, David Bomberg, C R W Nevinson, Gwen John, Augustus John, Walter Sickert, Mark Gertler, Laura Knight, John Piper, Ruskin Spear, John Ward, L S Lowry, Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, Eileen Agar, Roger Hilton, Ivon Hitchens, Michael Rothenstein, Maggi Hambling and Bernard Cohen.

The somewhat obscure Pencil Society details of whose formation is not yet certain is recorded as having its inaugural exhibition in 1909 held at the Dudley Gallery, London in May of that year. Other exhibitions are known to have taken place at the Laing Art Gallery, Walker's Gallery, Wm B. Paterson's Gallery and elsewhere and not necessarily in consecutive years. Another exhibition was recorded by an advert in the January 1920 edition of Colour Magazine announcing it would be held at the department store of Derry & Toms which was situated in Kensington High Street, London. From 1926 to 1988 the Pastel Society held a joint annual exhibition with the Pencil Society - a decision which at first proved very unpopular with many leading critics both within and without the Society. The two Societies amalgamated in 1988.

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