Conté crayons are compressed graphite or charcoal mixed with clay, invented in 1795 during the Napoleonic Wars. Learn how Seurat used them and why artists still choose them over soft pastels.
In 1794, France could not get graphite from England. The British naval blockade had cut off imports, and French artists, draftsmen, and engineers were running out of drawing materials. Nicolas-Jacques Conte, a painter and inventor who had helped found the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, was asked to solve the problem. Within days, he mixed powdered graphite with clay, pressed it into sticks, and fired it in a kiln. The result was a drawing material that did not need English graphite and could be manufactured in controlled grades of hardness. He patented it on January 7, 1795. He called them "artificial pencils." We call them Conte crayons.
A Conte crayon is a hard drawing stick made of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a clay base, square in cross-section. It is harder than a soft pastel and softer than a graphite pencil. Conte crayons are manufactured in black, white, red, brown, and sepia, and in a range of hardness grades. They produce a dense, thick line that sits between the precision of pencil and the painterly smudge of pastel. The square cross-section allows for both broad strokes (using the side) and fine lines (using the edge).
This entry covers what Conte crayons are, how they differ from other drawing materials, the history of their invention, which artists used them, and how to work with them today.
Conte crayons are made by mixing powdered graphite or charcoal with clay and a small amount of binder, pressing the mixture into square sticks, and firing it. The clay acts as both binder and hardening agent. More clay produces a harder stick with a lighter mark. Less clay produces a softer stick with a darker mark. The firing temperature also affects hardness: higher temperatures produce harder sticks. This is the same principle that Conte used for his pencil leads, and it gives Conte crayons a consistency that natural chalks and charcoals cannot match.
The square cross-section is a defining feature. Unlike round pastels or hexagonal pencils, Conte crayons have four flat sides and four edges. The flat sides can cover large areas with broad, even strokes. The edges produce fine lines. The corners can make marks as thin as a hard pencil. This versatility in a single tool is one reason artists choose Conte crayons over other drawing materials.
According to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's CAMEO materials database, small amounts of organic binders such as fatty oils are added to some Conte crayons, giving them a slightly greasy feel. This greasiness helps the pigment adhere to paper and produces the dense, smooth laydown that distinguishes Conte from drier drawing materials like vine charcoal.
Conte crayons occupy a middle ground between pencils and pastels. A graphite pencil produces a smooth, controlled line but has limited tonal range and cannot cover large areas efficiently. A soft pastel produces broad, painterly marks but lacks precision and smudges easily. A Conte crayon does both. It can produce the fine hatching of a pencil and the broad tonal coverage of a pastel, and it holds its shape better than soft pastels because of the clay binder.
Conte crayons are harder than soft pastels, which makes them more suitable for detailed, hatched work. The Britannica entry on Conte crayons describes them as "an especially hard pencil, made of an admixture of graphite and clay that can be varied for different degrees of hardness." This hardness means Conte crayons do not crumble or produce the clouds of dust that soft pastels generate. They also blend differently: Conte crayons can be smudged with a stump or finger, but the result is smoother and less diffuse than pastel blending.
Color Conte crayons mix better on paper than many hard pastel products. Colors can be layered to produce different hues and values, and some artists create entire paintings with them, using them more like pastels than drawing sticks. They are also used to sketch under pastel paintings, laying down initial layers before applying softer pastels on top.
Nicolas-Jacques Conte (1755-1805) was a polymath. He was a painter, a physicist, a chemist, a mechanic, and a balloonist. When the French Republic needed a pencil that did not rely on English graphite, Conte solved the problem in days. His process of mixing powdered graphite with clay and firing it was the foundation of both the modern pencil and the Conte crayon. He received a patent in 1795 and formed la Societe Conte to manufacture his products. At the 1798 Exposition des produits de l'industrie francaise, Conte won the highest award for his "crayons of various colours." Two years later, he won the gold medal of Arts and Crafts.
Conte died in 1805. Napoleon had appointed him to the Legion of Honour, and a bronze statue was erected to his memory in 1852 at Sees, funded by public subscription. His son and son-in-law took over the company, which became Conte-Humblot. The brand was acquired by Bic in 1979 and remains a reference in drawing and dry techniques. The INPI retains the original patent, filed as the 77th patent since France's first patent law of 1791.
Conte crayons were adopted by French artists throughout the 19th century. Their portability, controlled hardness, and availability in black, red, and white made them ideal for field studies and academic drawing. By the 1880s, Georges Seurat was using Conte crayons for the drawings that would define his career. The 20th century saw Conte crayons become a standard material in art schools, particularly for figure drawing and observational studies.
Seurat is the artist most closely associated with Conte crayon. In the 1880s, he produced hundreds of drawings using black Conte crayon on rough paper, developing the tonal vocabulary that would inform his pointillist paintings. Drawings like The Railway Passage (c. 1883-1884, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Woman Powdering Herself (c. 1889-1890, Courtauld Gallery) use Conte crayon built up in layers on textured paper, creating luminous tonal fields from the interplay of black pigment and the white paper showing through. Seurat exploited the fact that Conte crayon on rough paper deposits pigment only on the raised fibers, leaving the valleys of the paper surface white. This optical blending produces a soft, luminous gray that no amount of smudging can replicate.
Ingres used Conte crayons alongside graphite pencils for his portrait drawings. The controlled hardness of Conte suited Ingres's precise, linear style. His portrait drawings, produced throughout his career, demonstrate the medium's capacity for both fine line and subtle tonal modeling.
Redon used black Conte crayon for his series of "noirs," the dark charcoal-and-Conte drawings that established his reputation in the 1880s. Works like The Spider (1881) and The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (1882) use Conte crayon for deep, velvety blacks that create a dreamlike, unsettling atmosphere. Redon's noirs demonstrate the medium's capacity for both precise detail and broad tonal fields.
Prud'hon used black and white Conte crayons on blue paper for his academic figure studies. The combination of black Conte for shadows and white Conte for highlights on a mid-tone blue ground produces a full tonal range. Prud'hon's drawings, such as his Study of a Female Figure (c. 1800, Louvre), are models of the trois crayons technique adapted for Conte sticks.
Conte crayons work best on paper with some tooth or texture. Rough paper holds the pigment grains and allows for the kind of optical tonal blending that Seurat exploited. Smooth paper produces a cleaner, more graphic line but limits tonal range. Conte crayons can also be used on prepared or primed canvas for underdrawing before painting.
The square shape offers several ways to make marks. Use the flat side for broad coverage and tonal laying. Use the edge for lines of medium width. Use the corner for fine detail. Conte crayons can be sharpened with a knife or sandpaper block to create a finer point. They can be blended with a stump, a finger, or a chamois cloth, though the hardness of the material means blending produces smoother, less diffuse results than with soft pastels.
Conte crayons should be fixed with fixative when the drawing is complete. The lines abrade and smear readily, as the CAMEO database notes, and fixative prevents the pigment from rubbing off. Some artists fix between layers to allow for additional work on top without disturbing the underlying tones.
Conte crayons sit between several drawing materials. Graphite pencils use the same clay-bonding process but are encased in wood and produce smoother, lighter marks. Charcoal produces darker, looser marks but lacks the controlled hardness of Conte. Soft pastels contain more pigment and less binder, producing richer color but less precision. Red chalk (sanguine) is a natural material that Conte crayons replicate in manufactured form.
For more on drawing techniques, read our entries on cross hatching, tonal drawing, and chiaroscuro, or explore our post on how to read a painting.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds Seurat's Conte crayon drawings, including The Railway Passage. The Courtauld Gallery in London holds Woman Powdering Herself. The Louvre holds Prud'hon's academic studies. The Musee d'Orsay has a collection of 19th-century French drawings that include Conte work by Seurat, Redon, and others. These works are light-sensitive and displayed in rotation.
Conte crayons are a product of war and ingenuity. A British blockade cut France off from graphite, and a French inventor responded by creating a new material from what was available. The sticks that artists buy today in art supply stores are direct descendants of Conte's 1795 patent. For more on the materials that connect to Conte crayons, read our entries on the pencil and pastel, or explore our guide to oil painting techniques.
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