Sennelier

The Sennelier soft pastel “a l’eco” is a unique tool for pastel artists who have an passion for tradition and quality.
At the end of the 19th century, Gustave Sennelier spent several years developing the Sennelier range of extra soft “a l’eco” pastels. This collection created the largest chromatic pastel spectrum. The collection was further developed in 1948 an again, recently, at the beginning of the new millennium.

Sennelier pastels are still made according to traditional methods. The “a l’ecu” extra soft pastels are made from an extremely pure, selected pigment and a natural binder. The smoothness and velvety quality of the soft pastels result from a perfect balance between these two materials. 

The pastels exceptional luminosity is a result of the naturally occurring minerals discovered by Sennelier in 1905 from the Champagne region of France. These minerals, which are still used today, are added to each hue to create a palette of colours that range from pure saturated pigment to almost with tints.

The original purity of the pigments, whose smoothness varies according to their individual chemical composition can sometimes result in variations in softness.

However, this insures that the pastel keeps its special brilliance and intensity. The exceptionally high lightfastness of new pigments, such as the “quinacridones” or “pyrrole” organic red or the “spinelles” mineral browns guarantees that your work will last longer.

The combination of our traditional manufacturing methods, the advances in modern chemistry and the recently developed pigments, enable us to give today’s pastel painters a revitalised palette of 525 shades.