11 October 2024 – 26 January 2025
We've lent our Anna Alma-Tadema panel London Fog to the Barber Institute of Art's exhibition 'Scent and the Pre-Raphaelites' - where it shall be hung amongst paintings by Millais, Simeon Solomon, Rossetti and Evelyn De Morgan.
Originally the panel hung in Sir Lawrence and Anna Alma-Tadema's hall at their house in St John's Wood, alongside panels painted by the likes of Marcus Stone, Henry Stacey Marks and GH Boughton, amongst others. Though of uniform height, the panels differ considerably in breadth.
An article in the - wrote: 'When all the work involved in the production of the artistic objects which have been mentioned, and when the spirit in which that work was undertaken and carried out, are recorded, the suggestion that the Hall of Panels might also be called the Hall of Friendship is abundantly justified; and it is not difficult to imagine the spirit of pride with which Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema saw inscribed in the central place of the hall the words with which this article began.' (De Cordova, The Halls of Panels in the house of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, R.A.)
Scent is a key motif in paintings by the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements. Fragrance is visually 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 in Victorian painting to evoke hedonism – pleasure in exquisite sensations – and a preoccupation with beauty; or to reflect the Victorian vogue for synaesthesia (evoking one sense through another) and the penchant for art, like scent, to evoke moods and emotions.
Motifs of scent and smell intersected with the most vociferous discourses of the day, including sanitation, urban morality, immigration, race, mental health, faith, and the rise in women’s independence. Many 19th- and early 20th-century notions about smell – that it is the manifestation of disease, that rainbows radiate the fragrance of dewy meadows, or that highly-perfumed flowers are asphyxiating – seem outlandish today.
Yet this exhibition demonstrates how an understanding of these and other largely forgotten ideas about smell bring to the fore significant aspects of these extraordinary artworks.
This landmark exhibition is curated by Dr Christina Bradstreet, author of Scented Visions: Smell in Art, 1850-1914 (PSU Press, 2022). It highlights the role of the olfactory sense and its significance for some of Britain’s best-loved art treasures. from collections across the United Kingdom. Artists featured include Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, John Frederick Lewis, John Everett Millais, Evelyn De Morgan, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Simeon Solomon, and others.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to participate in an optional scent experience that will enliven the scents suggested in certain paintings. A wide-ranging programme of events exploring art and scent will accompany the exhibition.
A version of this exhibition will travel to the Watts Gallery this spring. Scented Visions: Smell in Victorian Art will run from 12 May to 9 November 2025.