Amid the halls of Louvre Abu Dhabi sits a portrait from the 17th century, depicting a kitchen table and its contents. It takes in everything from a cut of meat hung on the wall and bird carcasses to a plate of sliced lemons and crusts of bread.
Titled Still Life in a Pantry by the artist Jeremie Plume, the painting is striking for many reasons, primary of which is the distinct fragrance each item could be thought to exude. Now, its aromas – and, indeed, odours – can be experienced rather than just imagined.
In collaboration with Swiss fragrance maker Givaudan, Louvre Abu Dhabi has introduced Art in Scents, an innovative guided tour that transforms nine artworks from the museum's permanent collection into a journey of fragrance. The experience, which launches at the end of October, pairs the selected piece with a bespoke scent designed to evoke its mood, setting and story.
Visitors will receive an Art in Scents booklet, where microencapsulated pages release a fragrance for each painting or sculpture. “This allows visitors to step into the artwork and experience it in a completely new sensory dimension,” says Noura Almansoori, museum educator at Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The project was developed with two of Givaudan’s master perfumers: Dalia Izem, winner of the 2022 Perfumer of the Year Award at Beautyworld Middle East, and Gael Montero, known for blending architecture, science and emotion in his experimental compositions. Together, they worked to translate visual art into olfactory form, drawing from history, materiality and atmosphere to create a personal encounter with each work.
“History is part of everything we do, especially in perfumery,” says Montero. “It’s fascinating to explore how ingredients were used in the past and how we can reconstruct those traditions today.”
Izem adds: “The Louvre gave us total artistic freedom to extend the dimension of each artwork, to translate its visual and emotional essence into fragrance.”
The collaboration also produced a signature scent, titled A Universal Breeze, inspired by the museum’s architecture and surroundings. Diffused in the entrance halls, the fragrance mirrors the play of light beneath the museum’s dome, the desert’s mineral tones and the salt-laced air of the Arabian Gulf. Combining marine, musk, incense and amber accords, it is conceived as a tribute to the spirit of Louvre Abu Dhabi.
“Art in Scents will add a sensory layer to the museum's narrative, opening connections that go beyond language or background,” says Ugo Bertoni, director of External Affairs, Outreach & Cultural Engagement at Louvre Abu Dhabi. “This is our way of inviting visitors to feel an even closer connection to the museum and to one another, deepening cultural dialogue and reinforcing Louvre Abu Dhabi’s role as a space of shared discovery.”
A new way of engaging with art
The guided tour follows nine artworks across centuries and continents, from ancient Egypt to modern Japan, each accompanied by its own scent.
The journey begins with a stonework relief, Image of a Queen or a Goddess, for which the perfumers recreated the sacred incense Kyphi once used in pharaonic temples. Notes of myrrh, frankincense and honey evoke an atmosphere of ritual devotion and continuity between past and present.
Starting with one of the oldest exhibits, and recreating recipes interpreted from hieroglyphic text, the tour kicks off with a surprising yet memorable scent, one that feels completely new yet oddly familiar.
For Thurifer Angel in a Yellow Tunic by Bernhard Strigel, sacred smoke becomes a bridge between the earthly and the divine, rendered in accords of frankincense and resin.
Still Life in a Pantry, the next artwork on the tour, offers a surprising contrast: a composition of bread, broth and roasted meat that turns the domestic scene into an immersive memory.
By the third scent, it also becomes apparent that not every fragrance created is a pleasant one. More important than pleasantness, rather, is the attempt to capture a moment in time, one that can only be interpreted from examining a painting.
“A smell is not the same as a perfume,” Montero explains. “You might enjoy the scent of something but not want to wear it – like how we love the smell of food, but wouldn’t necessarily want to smell like it.”
From the Ottoman Empire, Floral Treasures from Iznik inspires a powdery bouquet of narcissus, iris and musk, echoing the delicate artistry of Iznik tiles.
For Edward Burne-Jones’s The Prince Entering the Briar Wood, scents of rose and bramble intertwine with metallic notes, evoking the romance and peril of the fairy-tale moment.
The 19th-century French section includes The Cup of Chocolate by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a portrait of warmth and refinement expressed through rose, violet and cocoa; and The Bezique Game by Gustave Caillebotte, reimagined through tobacco smoke, leather and cedarwood to capture the intimacy of a late-night gathering.
Contemporary works are also given a vivid dimension through scent. Food for Thought, titled Al Muallaqat in Arabic, by Saudi artist Maha Malluh carries the comforting aroma of burnt rice, spices and wood smoke, a tribute to communal kitchens and shared memory. Izem says she wanted to communicate a sense of familial gatherings around food when interpreting the scent for Al Muallaqat.
The final piece, Chirisei Kyubiki, bursts with raw energy through the use of beetroot, rhubarb and metallic tones, a scent that mirrors the physical intensity of Kazuo Shiraga's painting techniqueusing the artist's feet.
“It’s bold, emotional and visually captivating. I wanted the scent to reflect that,” says Izem.
Science of memory and connection
While Art in Scents relies on complex perfumery techniques, its goal remains simple: to evoke emotion.
“When you smell something, you’re not thinking consciously. It bypasses the analytical part of your brain and connects straight to emotion,” says Kathleen Vermeiren, tour guide at Louvre Abu Dhabi. “You feel the scent rather than think about it.”
For Vermeiren, the project also represents an opportunity to bridge cultures through a ubiquitous medium. “I hope this experience connects different cultures through the universal language of scent,” she says. “It’s a beautiful link between memory, emotion and the shared history of humanity.”
Where art, architecture and aroma meet
The introduction of Art in Scents continues Louvre Abu Dhabi’s mission to reinterpret art and culture for modern audiences. Since its opening in 2017, the museum has been known for breaking traditional boundaries, whether through digital storytelling, cross-cultural curation or, now, sensory immersion.
As visitors move through the galleries, breathing in the sacred smoke of the Renaissance, the spices of Arabia or the metallic pulse of post-war Japan, the line between viewing and feeling art begins to blur. The museum becomes not just a space to see, but also to sense. Even though only nine pieces are presented through unique scents, every other artwork and artefact seen at the museum begins to evoke its own signature scent in the mind.
“It’s truly like stepping into a painting through the senses,” says Almansoori.
