Artwork
Sense of Smell
Sense of Smell is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Adriaen van Ostade. It dates from 1635 and is held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Adriaen van Ostade's 1635 oil painting, Sense of Smell, functions as a genre scene illustrating one of the five human senses.
Adriaen van Ostade's 1635 oil painting, Sense of Smell, functions as a genre scene illustrating one of the five human senses. The composition depicts a domestic interior containing a man and a woman engaged in the act of changing diapers. This specific activity serves as the iconographic vehicle for representing the sensory perception of smell, likely alluding to the unpleasant odors associated with the task.
By focusing on such a mundane and earthy aspect of daily life in Haarlem, the work embodies the Dutch Golden Age tradition of using realistic, often humorous, domestic situations to explore abstract concepts like the senses.
Technique & Style
Created in 1635 in Haarlem, this work is an oil painting executed on a wooden panel. The composition measures 20 cm in height and 25 cm in width. Stylistically classified as a genre scene, the image depicts a domestic interior featuring a man and a woman engaged in the act of changing diapers, serving as an allegory for the sensory perception of smell.
History & Provenance
Sense of Smell was painted by Adriaen van Ostade in Haarlem in 1635, as indicated by the work’s inception date. The oil-on-panel genre scene depicts a domestic interior with a woman changing a child's diaper while a man sniffs, illustrating the sense of smell. It entered the collection of the Hermitage Museum, where it is now housed. No earlier ownership records or commission details are documented in the available sources.
Adriaen van Ostade's painting Sense of Smell, created in 1635, is held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The work is executed in oil paint on a panel measuring 20 cm in height and 25 cm in width. The specific inventory or accession number for this piece is not provided in the available records. No details regarding the painting's exhibition history are documented in the current sources.
Overview
Adriaen van Ostade’s 1635 oil painting titled Sense of Smell captures a quiet domestic moment. The work presents a man and a woman caring for an infant, set within a modest interior illuminated by a soft, warm light that streams from the left side of the canvas. The composition is modest in scale and resides in the State Hermitage Museum.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Adriaen van Ostade (baptized as Adriaen Jansz Hendricx 10 December 1610 – buried 2 May 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, showing the everyday life of ordinary men and women.
