The Facts
On October 28, 2026, Getty announced that a curator's search for a missing shade led La Maison du Pastel in Paris to create a new pastel color, tentatively named Seafoam. Assistant Curator of Drawings Danielle Canter visited the over-300-year-old atelier during "Exploring the Materiality of Powdered Colors," a seminar run by the University of Amsterdam and supported by Getty's Paper Project. Canter sought pastels matching the muted blue in Edgar Degas's Après le bain (Femme s'essuyant) (about 1895) and worked with proprietors Isabelle Roché and Margaret Zayer. After archival research, Zayer produced Seafoam, a shade unavailable among the shop's existing 2,000 colors.
The Signal
The collaboration positions La Maison du Pastel as a living archive for conservation science. Paper conservator Michelle Sullivan, who received the pastel box, is using Seafoam and antique pastels to reconstruct Degas-era techniques and test pigment lightfastness at the Getty Conservation Institute. The project also reflects Getty's Paper Project, which has awarded 83 grants and trained 500 curators from 18 countries, signaling sustained support for technical studies of works on paper.
- Artists: Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon
- People: Danielle Canter, Michelle Sullivan, Isabelle Roché, Margaret Zayer, Henri Roché
- Museums: Getty Museum
- Locations: Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles
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