Philippe Mercier, 1689 or 1691–1760, Franco-German, active in Britain (from 1716)
Title:
The Sense of Smell
Date:
1744 to 1747
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
52 x 60 1/2 inches (132.1 x 153.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1974.3.16
Gallery Label:
As in The Sense of Touch and The Sense of Taste, this composition consists of two pairs of lovers, one rustic, the other poetic. They meet in a park. The boy in the tricorn hat has been out shooting. His brace of partridges, in which his gun dog shows much interest, is on the ledge at his elbow. His companion in a straw hat, possibly a shepherdess or milkmaid, greets him with a basket of ripe melons, one of which he takes in both hands and smells-in the manner universally known to ascertain ripeness. The other couple are more elaborately dressed. The young lady takes a sprig of fragrant jasmine from her basket of flowers and holds it up for her lover to savor. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005
