“Intoxicated by turpentine”: An Olfactory History of Painting (1750-1939)

Description du projet

Capter une histoire cachée de l’art

Bien que l’accès numérique aux peintures historiques soit d’un haut niveau, nous peinons souvent à comprendre les conditions et les contextes de leurs créations. La restauration et l’approfondissement de ces connaissances sont essentiels pour l’histoire de l’art et notre patrimoine culturel. Dans cette direction, le projet PaintOdor, financé par l’UE, vise à mener une étude à partir de «l’odeur de la peinture» pour dévoiler le rôle fascinant de l’olfaction et de l’organisation des ateliers des peintres au cours de l’histoire matérielle de l’art. L’accent est mis sur l’art de la peinture en France du milieu du XVIIIe à la première moitié du XXe siècle. Le projet fournira l’analyse riche d’une «histoire cachée» alternative en utilisant des sources historiques provenant d’un large éventail d’archives.

Objectif

“Intoxicated by turpentine.” When Marcel Duchamp so described the painters of his time, the avant-garde artist was not only criticizing a traditional way of thinking about the materiality of art, he was also modernizing a commonplace of medical discourse as well as a recurring and significant motif in the French commentary on the arts. Investigating historically the stereotype of “the smell of paint,” this research project seeks to underscore the important role of olfaction in the material history of art and in the historical conceptions of the art of painting in France from the mid-18th century to the first half of 20th. At the crossroads of art history and history of the sciences, this research will describe how medical concerns about the smell of paint significantly influenced the making and the composition of colors as well as the size and organization of the painter’s studio, consequently affecting the social status of the artist and, ultimately, the critical discourse on art, which often used the smell of a painting in metaphors expressing an aesthetical judgment. Thus, from the creation of a painting to its reception, the frequent references to the smell of paint unveil a hidden aspect of the history of art that will be illuminated through this analysis of a variety of historical sources, including, in particular, medical works, technical treatises on painting, industrial archives, art criticism, satirical drawings, etc. Finally, this historical research on the smell of a painting will be applied to the creation of a pedagogical tool aimed at the museum-going public. It will present the historical evolution of the painter’s studio through the smells of the painter’s materials. This sensory experience of the materiality of painting aims to embody art history, providing museum visitors with an alternative to the digital approach to works of art.