A01=Imogen Savage
art history
Author_Imogen Savage
Category=AFCC
Category=AGA
Category=DNBF
Edgar Degas
Edouard Vuillard
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
impressionism
impressionists
James McNeill Whistler
Le Marais
Musee de l'Orangerie
Odilon Redon
Paris
pastel
pointillism
Richard Serra
Sam Szafran
The Siege of Paris
Winston Churchill
Product details
- ISBN 9781966302025
- Dimensions: 127 x 177mm
- Publication Date: 19 Nov 2026
- Publisher: Spiegel & Grau LLC
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The enchanting story of La Maison du Pastel, a tiny shop in Paris that has been providing pastels to artists since the eighteenth century, and the two women who fell in love and brought it back to life.
In a narrow sliver of a shop off a bustling street in the Marais district of Paris, you may find all the colors in the world. California Poppy, Reddish Gray, Storm Green, Seraphin Blue, Crepuscular Violet, Velvet Black, Bleu Nuit. Through the French Revolution and two world wars, La Maison du Pastel has produced pastels for some of the greatest artists of their eras: among them Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon, Édouard Vuillard, James McNeill Whistler, and Richard Serra. Winston Churchill too was a customer.
The shop was founded by Henri Roché, a chemist with a passion for artists’ materials, and was in the family for generations. But with the devastation wrought by World War II, the demanding and painstaking labor of creating these sticks of saturated color, and the passing of pastels from vogue, the shop—and the craft—seemed destined to die out. At the turn of the twenty-first century, however, it was rescued by a distant cousin of its founder, Isabelle Roché, whose own existential crisis led her to find her mission in La Maison.
Within a few years, Margaret Zayer, an American art student, a pastellist herself, came to Paris to visit the storied shop. She and Isabelle connected on a profound level and fell in love. Together they immersed themselves in resuscitating the business, restoring the atelier that had been looted by German troops, and recreating the pastels according to Henri’s original formulations. They’ve built a repertoire of eighteen hundred shades—all made by hand—and expanded the color vocabulary to capture elusive shades that seem to anticipate the needs sprung from an artist’s imagination. They’ve helped bring pastels back into contemporary artistic relevance and in the process have changed the course of art history.
The Paris Pastel Shop is at once a very particular history—of Paris, a family, a craft, an art form—and a love story of two women who found belonging and purpose in their shared quest.
In a narrow sliver of a shop off a bustling street in the Marais district of Paris, you may find all the colors in the world. California Poppy, Reddish Gray, Storm Green, Seraphin Blue, Crepuscular Violet, Velvet Black, Bleu Nuit. Through the French Revolution and two world wars, La Maison du Pastel has produced pastels for some of the greatest artists of their eras: among them Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon, Édouard Vuillard, James McNeill Whistler, and Richard Serra. Winston Churchill too was a customer.
The shop was founded by Henri Roché, a chemist with a passion for artists’ materials, and was in the family for generations. But with the devastation wrought by World War II, the demanding and painstaking labor of creating these sticks of saturated color, and the passing of pastels from vogue, the shop—and the craft—seemed destined to die out. At the turn of the twenty-first century, however, it was rescued by a distant cousin of its founder, Isabelle Roché, whose own existential crisis led her to find her mission in La Maison.
Within a few years, Margaret Zayer, an American art student, a pastellist herself, came to Paris to visit the storied shop. She and Isabelle connected on a profound level and fell in love. Together they immersed themselves in resuscitating the business, restoring the atelier that had been looted by German troops, and recreating the pastels according to Henri’s original formulations. They’ve built a repertoire of eighteen hundred shades—all made by hand—and expanded the color vocabulary to capture elusive shades that seem to anticipate the needs sprung from an artist’s imagination. They’ve helped bring pastels back into contemporary artistic relevance and in the process have changed the course of art history.
The Paris Pastel Shop is at once a very particular history—of Paris, a family, a craft, an art form—and a love story of two women who found belonging and purpose in their shared quest.
Imogen Savage is a British journalist living in Berlin.
