Now Degas’s pencil and chalk drawings, monotype prints and pastels, oil paintings and sculptures ... huge canvases—historical subjects and portraits like those Ingres and Delacroix had painted ...

For over 300 years, La Maison du Pastel has handcrafted these pastels, used by artists like Degas. Today, the company is run and operated by just two women — Isabelle Roché, a distant relative ...