UK Exhibition to Pair Pre-Raphaelite Art and Aromas

An upcoming Pre-Raphaelite art exhibition aims to explore—and creatively enhance—the sensory aura of the paintings associated with the movement. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham recently announced Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, an interactive multisensory display of 19th-century artworks and their corresponding aromas. The exhibition opens on October 11 and runs through January 26, 2025.

Art can tell stories, evoke emotion, and suggest sensation. In its obsessive attention to detail, Pre-Raphaelite art was especially preoccupied with exploring the five senses. Many of the movement’s masterworks visually imply certain fragrances, from rain-soaked earth to burning incense. Visitors to Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites won’t have to rely on their imaginations to conjure these specific scents. Rather, with the press of a button, they can actually experience a painting’s scent by activating a nearby diffuser.

The Barber Institute collaborated with “storytelling art curators” Artphilia and the Spanish fashion and perfume house Puig, which developed the technology and custom scents used in the exhibition. The optional scent experience utilizes the “latest olfactory technology” to diffuse scents on air molecules without causing damage to artworks or overwhelming museum-goers. According to the Barber Institute, the interactivity of the exhibition highlights the role of “the olfactory sense and its significance for some of Britain’s best-loved art treasures.”

What Does Pre-Raphaelite Art Smell Like?

Artists featured in Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites include John Everett Millais, Simeon Solomon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, John Frederick Lewis, Evelyn De Morgan, John William Waterhouse, and others. The exhibition presents these sensorial Pre-Raphaelite paintings both visually and olfactorily for the first time. For example, A Saint of the Eastern Church by Simeon Solomon depicts a man with a halo holding an incense burner. The scent of incense, as well as amber wood from a Russian church’s wooden interior, will accompany the painting. The Millais masterpiece A Blind Girl will be paired with the scent of damp earth and fresh grass, evoking the English countryside after a summer rainstorm.

Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites opens on October 11 at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Christina Bradstreet, author of the 2022 book Scented Visions: Smell in Art. To The Observer, Bradstreet explained, “Scents in Pre-Raphaelite paintings have been overlooked, but they were a key element….The hope [for the exhibition] is that people will not only see the visual details but have a strong sense of place, of being in the painting.” The Barber Institute also plans to host a “wide-ranging program of events” to examine further the relationship between art and scent alongside the exhibition.