San Francisco. Three days, three exhibitions featuring three women painters, three charming fragrance pairings.
I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to kick off 2025 than by going on an early January artsy trip and featuring perfume-painting combinations in my very first blog post of the year.
On day 1, I paired Idyllic by The Alloy Studio with Amy Sherald’s Saint Woman (2015), currently on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Idyllic’s dusky glow (pineapple, blood orange) and spicy character (anise, ginger) is supported by golden amber, nicely matching the yellow, textured halo and pensive mood of the Sherald painting. In the newer versions of the fragrance (sample), perfumer Bryson Ammons amped up the pineapple and adjusted the amount of blood orange.
On Day 2, I matched Tragedy Perfume Oil by Marissa Zappas with Tamara de Lempicka’s Portrait of Ira P. (1931), currently in view at the de Young Museum. Created around an aloof and enticing tuberose (blended with orange flowers, fir balsam, and oakmoss), Tragedy perfectly complements the artist’s cool, sensual, and glossy style. The fragrance was created for actress Ruby McCollister’s show, Tragedy, an ode to the ghosts of actresses revisiting the stage of an old Los Angeles theater. I also wore this fascinating fragrance at the dazzling de Lempicka musical in May 2024. Try it if you can. Its radiant trail is like no other!
On the third day, the fragrance of choice was La Valse by Wit & West, which I paired with Mary Cassatt’s Portrait on a Balcony (1878-1879), which was on show until January 26 at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. La Valse is a soft, powdery, all-natural rose, sprinkled with rocks of pepper and cloaked in a plush robe of vanilla (Wit’s own vanilla bean tincture). The fragrance is a beautiful match for Cassatt’s whole impressionistic esthetic and sensibility, but the serene mood and the adorning roses make this painting especially fitting. It’s a fragrance that will get you compliments even if you aren’t looking for them!
I mentioned three paintings and three fragrances, but I wanted to share a fourth pairing.
Sacré Bleu by Aftelier is the perfect pick for Marie Cassatt’s Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878; displayed until January 26 at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco). This subtle fragrance smells like grass, thistles, wildflowers, and something sweeter, combining unusual florals such as blue lotus and boronia with aged Mysore sandalwood. The overall effect is that of a field blooming with tiny, pale blue forget-me-not flowers, an image I associate with the blues of this Cassatt painting.
Do you like to combine scent with other artistic or cultural experiences?
Tragedy Perfume oil and La Valse were purchased by me.
Idyllic was kindly gifted by Bryson and Eddie of The Alloy Studio.
Sacre Bleu was sent to me by Mandy Aftel of Aftelier as part of a generous giveaway.
All artwork postcards were purchased by me.
Photo by Sarah.
Oh, this is very good fun! In fact, I often do that: associate perfumes with paintings or music or books.
In the German perfume community platform parfumo.de, there is a thread that has exactly the same idea you had: Someone posts a painting (with source reference, name, artist, year of creation). The next person suggests a suitable scent that they associate with that painting, and then post a painting themselves. This goes on and on. Here’s a link: https://www.parfumo.de/forums/topic/duftgemalde (It’s in German, but you will be able to follow the paintings and associations, or you can easily use an internet translation service to translate the page to your language.)
I have taken the liberty to cross-reference your blog there.
On that same platform, I have a little list of literature-inspired perfumes: https://www.parfumo.de/Benutzer/SebastianM/Sammlung/378865?order=br_asc
Thank you so much for stopping by and for mentioning the Parfumo.de site, Sebastian! I’ll go and look right now. 🙂
I will also read your own literature-inspired perfumes. I often associate perfumes to books or novel characters, too!