A few months ago, I had the pleasure to meet the conservation and mediation teams of the Museum of Fine Arts of Nîmes (France).
Our discussion focused on the cross-disciplinary textile exhibition planned for 2025 in Nîmes, in which five museums were going to participate: the Museum of Fine Arts, of course, but also the Chapelle des Jésuites, the Musée des Cultures Taurines, the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle and the Musée du Vieux Nîmes.
Launched in early April 2025 and spread over seven months, these activities aim to present the rich permanent collections of the city-owned museums, in the town which saw the birth of denim fabric and which has long been a mecca of clothing, with Cacharel among the best-known brands.
The Museum of Fine Arts is presenting an exhibition entitled "Drapés, une histoire d'illusion(s)" which traces the representation of textiles in art paintings. The museum's intention was to bring a multi-sensory dimension to this exhibition through touch and smell.
The museum commissioned me to create six olfactory creations inspired by artworks that would be part of the exhibition.
During my visit prior to the creative work, I walked through the rooms that were being remodeled. I took photographs of the paintings, six of which were chosen to serve as inspiration for six original scents.
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1. La Picciola by Jules Salles
I created a scent of great symbolism, in the image of the novel that inspired the painting: La Picciola by the author Saintite. An ambivalent smell of confinement (Charney, the main character is imprisoned. We can see him behind bars at the top right of the artwork) and of hope of repentance on the horizon (through the language of flowers, I made an olfactory nod to the Virgin Mary - here symbolized by the central female character - and to the Picciola, the flowering plant at the bottom left of the artwork with which Charney falls in love, and which both will save him from hell).
Accords of old rose and damp prison (smelling of disinfectant to combat the diseases that were rife in these unsanitary places) · Carnation absolute · Essential oils of nutmeg and immortelle.
Installation of an olfactory device near the artwork
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2. Au Réveil by Pierre Carrier-Belleuse
Detail of the artwork
This voluptuous representation makes me think of these orientalist works of odalisques, which corresponds well to the date of the creation of the work: 1903. Her silk nightgown and her cotton poplin petticoat, both of silky and light texture, evoke a powdery sensation to me. 1903 is also a time very influenced by orientalism in perfumery with the use of vanilla, sandalwood, orange blossom and jasmine to which I would associate sparkling citrus fruits to evoke sunrise light.
Accords of daffodil, vanilla, white sandalwood, violet, oakmoss · Sambac jasmine absolute · Essential oils of bergamot, green mandarin, neroli and galbanum.
Installation of an olfactory device near the artwork
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3. La Fontaine by Henri Clamens
Detail of the artwork
This scene of daily life in the medina of Algiers is teeming with smells. Of course, the smell of the water from this fountain, in the left part of the artwork, which symbolically expresses its purifying function before prayer, scents of oud wood, rose and jasmine for religious uses and spices (cumin, cardamom, etc.) and aromatic plants (nanah mint, etc.) of the souk.
Accords of oriental rose, jasmine and oud wood · Essential oils of cumin, cardamom, manuka, nanah mint and holy stick fruit.
Installation of an olfactory device near the artwork
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4. La Lorelei by Adelaide Salles-Wagner
Detail of the artwork
This Germanic siren leads to ruin any man who listens to her bewitching song. The lyre at her side, one of Apollo's attributes, leaves no doubt about it. I composed a scent of aquatic tumult and narcotic and dangerous effluvia, symbolized here through scent by flowers such as tuberose and ylang-ylang. I added rhododendron, a flower associated with danger. Indeed, some varieties are toxic and were used for their medicinal and poisoning properties.
Accords of sea breeze and aquatic swell · Tuberose absolute · Essential oils of rhododendron leaves, ylang-ylang and sea fennel.
Installation of an olfactory device near the artwork consisting of a cardboard container with cotton inside on which the scent has been sprayed.
By lifting a panel located above the container, the visitor can discover more information about the creation: a short text summarizing its inspiration as well as the main ingredients that make it up.
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5. Massacre des enfants de la race royale par Athalie by Xavier Sigalon
Detail of the artwork
This red chalk, inspired by Racine's tragedy Athalie, evokes the massacre ordered by Athalie, the widow of the king of the Kingdom of Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. Religious cults were very present in this territory and incense was used in rituals, and in particular to pay homage to the dead, which are quite a few in this painting... I was inspired by a recipe given in the Pitum haKetoret, a commandment prescribed by the Torah, consisting of the burning of incense in the Temple, so that to cover, by its intensity, the smell of the animals ritually sacrificed, then transferred from the human world to the divine world by burning on an altar. This seemed to me to echo all these humans sacrificed in the artwork.
Accords of saffron and costus · Labdanum and cassia absolutes · Essential oils of pyrogenic styrax, galbanum, olibanum, myrrh, clove, Himalayan spikenard, cinnamon bark, blue ginger and nutmeg.
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6. Ecolières by Luis Melo-Tormo
Detail of the artwork
Having lived in Spain for 17 years, this work reminds me of Spanish schoolgirls who smell of Nenuco, this typically Spanish eau de cologne (nenuco is a diminutive of nene, which means little child in Spanish), created in 1946 and still very popular. It is this scent that I freely reinterpreted.
Accords of lily of the valley, white musk and white sandalwood · Sambac jasmine absolute · Bergamot, lemon petitgrain and Maillette lavender essential oils.
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On May 15th, the exhibition "Drapés, une histoire d'illusion(s)" was inaugurated. It can be seen and smelt until November 16th, 2025.
During the inauguration, photojournalist Yannick Pons of the newspaper Objectif Gard took pictures of me in front of the olfactory devices. To read the article he wrote about it, click on any of the photographs.
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It was a real pleasure to immerse myself in the stories of these paintings, and to create olfactory evocations of them. To extend this experience, I will be leading two olfactory initiation workshops on
Saturday, May 24, 2025 and
Wednesday, October 22, 2025. Click on the links for more information.
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