Located on the campus of the University of Birmingham, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts is set to mount the exhibition “Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites.”
Scent was a key concern for the artists of Victorian Britain’s Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements. Fragrance was suggested in images of daydreaming figures smelling flowers or burning incense, enhancing the sensory aura of “art for art’s sake.”
Scent was also implied to evoke hedonistic pleasure and a preoccupation with beauty; the vogue for synesthesia (evoking one sense through another); and the penchant for art, like scent, to evoke moods and emotions.
Scent intersected with the era’s most contested issues, including sanitation, morality, immigration, race, mental health, faith, and women’s growing independence. Many of its notions about smell — for example, that rainbows radiate the fragrance of dewy meadows — seem outlandish today, yet the exhibition demonstrates how such forgotten ideas can enhance our enjoyment of these artworks today.
The show’s checklist features work borrowed from across the U.K.,” by such talents as Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, John Frederick Lewis, John Everett Millais, Evelyn De Morgan, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Simeon Solomon, and J.W. Waterhouse.
The project has been curated by Christina Bradstreet, author of the book Scented Visions: Smell in Art, 1850–1914″ (Penn State Press, 2022). Visitors will be invited to participate in a scent experience keyed to specific paintings.
At a Glance:
Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Birmingham, England
barber.org.uk
Through January 26, 2025
