Pastels from the eighteenth century are fascinating - due to either their closeness to nature and immediacy or the virtuosity of their execution, but always because of their opulent and fragile quality. The richly illustrated collection guidebook provides information in a compact form about all the works of this genre created between 1700 and 1800 in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. They include more than one dozen masterpieces by Joseph Vivien, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Rosalba Carriera, and Jean-Étienne Liotard, as well as anonymous works. Introductory essays shed light on aspects connected with art history, the history of the collection, and art technology.

Contributions by: Bernd Ebert, Ulrike Fischer, Elisabeth Hipp, Herbert Wilhelm Rott, Xavier Salmon