Eight scent creations for the Musée du Colombier

A few months ago I had the pleasure to meet the team at the Musée du Colombier , the fine arts museum in Alès (France), and discuss about a possible collaboration on their mediation programme called “Le Colombier dans tous les sens”.

These activities aim to present the museum's permanent collection through the senses of hear, smell and taste, and sight and touch.

I was commissioned by the museum to create eight scents in relation with the second component of the programme entitled "The Nose in the Collection and the (Good) Taste of the Museum" which was installed on October 18, 2024 and can be smelt until April 6, 2025.

During the preliminary visit, I wandered through the recently relooked rooms. I took photos of the artworks and the places to eventually select seven paintings and a space (paying tribute to the Pèlerin family, former owners of the building in which the museum is located) to serve as inspiration for the creation of eight scents.

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1. The Earth and its Productions by Jan Brueghel

Absolutes of ambrette seeds South America, tonka beans South America and tuberose Mexico · Peru balsam · Essential oils of rosewood leaves Brazil, cardamom Guatemala, lemongrass Guatemala, palo santo fruit Ecuador and bitter orange leaves Paraguay.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand near the painting

 

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2. Portrait of a Woman by Carle van Loo

Detail of the artwork

Carle van Loo was appointed first painter to the king in 1762 by Louis XV. This lady with her powdered curls and her classy look reminds me somehow the nobility that emerges from the portrait that the painter made of the Queen of France. This “minimalist” hairstyle, typical of the era of Louis XV, is quite a stylistic shift after the hair excesses of the era of Louis XIV. But the fact remains that people continue to perfume their hair using wig powders.

Accords of rose water, Rhodes wood (agarwood) · Absolute of ambrette seeds · Iris butter · Essential oils of clove claws, coriander, bay leaves, cinnamon leaves, bitter orange leaves Paraguay and bergamot.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand near the artwork

 

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3. France mourns Alsace and Lorraine by Adolphe Perrot

Detail of the artwork

This allegory of a France in mourning, inconsolable over the loss of part of its territory following the war of 1870 declared by Napoleon III, inspired a smell of gunpowder and tears.

Salty tears, sulfur, heated metal accords · Essential oils of sea fennel, black pepper, pyrogenic styrax, cade, leek, cinnamon leaves, birch and pyrogenic incense.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand near the artwork

 

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4. Odalisque, 1854 by Louis Emile Pinel de Grandchamp

Detail of the artwork

Perfumery, like painting, has been bewitched by orientalism. I am inspired by a composition called Eau des Odalisques, created in 1820, at a date contemporary with this artwork, by Monsieur Bacheville.

Accords of rose water, creamy vanilla · Peru balsam · Essential oils of styrax, galangal, bitter orange, cinnamon leaves, spearmint, angelica roots and dill.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand near the artwork

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5. Copy by Ferdinand Désiré Robineau-Sallard after Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson

Detail of the artwork

Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp from 1632 features a surgeon from Rembrandt's hometown dissecting one of the hands of the thief Aris Kind. At the time of the painting, plague epidemics were raging across the old continent. These two events inspired me to recreate The Vinegar of the Four Thieves, so named after the observation that a group of four thieves who were robbing houses and corpses that had died of the plague did not contract the disease because they had previously coated themselves with this cocktail that protected them. Oddly enough, this vinegar is still available for sale today!

Rue, white vinegar accords · Essential oils of absinthe, rosemary, Chinese lemongrass, clary sage, peppermint, lavender, wild thyme, calamus, cinnamon leaf, clove bud, white sage and nutmeg.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand near the artwork

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6. Mount Bouquet by Bernard Ferrière

Detail of the artwork

I freely imagined a smell of the vegetation that grows on Mont Bouquet, without forgetting the sea entrances that run up against its cliffs.

Accords of sea winds, Aleppo pine and holm oak, wild violet, broom · Mastic absolute · Essential oils of juniper berries, rosemary and thyme.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand near the artwork

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7. Mary Magdalene by Luis Alvarez

Detail of the artwork

 

The perfume of Mary Magdalene evoked in this passage from the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

“Then a woman from the city, a sinner, came and heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee’s house. She brought a precious jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears wet his feet. She wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured the ointment on them.”

is the starting point of this creation. To the essential oil of spikenard, which is the perfume mentioned above, I added other ingredients with religious connotations and/or mentioned in the Bible.

White sandalwood accord · Fenugreek absolute · Essential oils of Himalaya spikenard, galbanum and cistus.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand near the artwork

A short sentence summarizing the scent is printed just above the scent which was sprayed inside a cardboard box with a lid

The main ingredients in the perfume are printed under a felt on the stand

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8. Living room at the Colombier museum

View from the living room

 

This living room inspired an eclectic scent like the pieces of furniture in the room while giving a nod to the Pèlerin family which owes its name to a trip to the Holy Land.

Velvety peach skin accord · Essential oils of Arabica coffee beans, myrrh and true frankincense.

 

Installation of an olfactory stand in the room that inspired the perfume

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It was a real pleasure to immerse myself in the stories of these artworks and place, and to create olfactory evocations of them. To extend this experience, I will guide an olfactory tour on Sunday, November 24, 2024. More information here.