Scented Visions

“Bradstreet delivers a thoroughly-researched and richly-illustrated book, which will stand as a major reference in the field.” —Clara Muller, The Senses and Society “With her investigation into the motif of smelling and the depiction of smells in art between 1850 and 1914, Christina Bradstreet ties in with current specialist discourses. Bradstreet brings together a large number of paintings and embeds them in an exciting network that takes into account literary and art-historical references as well as contemporary debates in medicine, psychology and urban planning.” —Christian Sauer, 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual “A perfect profusion of pungent propositions, this book is a feast for the eyes as much as it is a delight to the nose.” —Hannah Squire, PRS Review “The first study of its kind, Christina Bradstreet’s Scented Visions documents in stunning detail the important role of scent in nineteenth-century art. Tracing a myriad of scent motifs that emerge across a wide array of art styles and movements, Bradstreet’s book makes a powerful contribution to our understanding of the cultural contexts of smell and history, particularly in this visual discipline in which we assume it must be marginalized. Upending assumptions about what constitutes the visual, Bradstreet offers a powerful model for what it means to ‘see’ smell in our archives of the past.” —Holly Dugan, author of The Ephemeral History of Perfume: Scent and Sense in Early Modern England