Candles marketed to men usually smell of musk (“the animal in you”), wood (the untamed wilderness), musky-woods (hunting deer in the untamed wilderness), leather (baseball mitt!), vetiver (cut grass), even hamburgers (White Castle), but all those supposedly manly candle aromas smell like so many roses and chocolate-covered marshmallows compared to perfumer Olivia Giacobetti’s Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne candle; it’s the most “masculine,” austere-severe candle scent I’ve ever smelled. Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne is downright UNcomfortable; as I sniff it, I feel an ancient bottle of flammable fluid in a rusty tin bottle is on the verge of igniting, a storm of dust bunnies might suffocate me, or dry-rot could cause the floor under my feet to collapse.
Need I say…I love it?
The Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne aroma was created for the artist Vincent Beaurin and his Le Spectre installation at Paul Cézanne’s studio in Aix-en-Provence last July and August. The PR materials say it all:
Nothing has changed in this ancient studio since Paul Cézanne passed away and his paintings were removed. Time has laid a veil of fine dust over it, as the Provençal heat has almost mineralized the wood of the furniture, of his easel and of the floorboards, long stained with colours, oil paints and turpentine.
Giacobetti has worked with Beaurin twice before* and was asked, this time, to concoct a perfume that captured the “essence” of Cézanne‘s workspace; Giacobetti used fragrance notes such as “linen” (I’m guessing flaxseed/linseed oil was used for this note), Alaska cypress and beeswax.
The scent of Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne is minimalist. Giacobetti does not do anything elaborate, or romantic, here: the scents of Cézanne’s pipe, and of still life subjects (apples, pears, oranges or floral bouquets) are absent. There are no aromas of the Provençal landscape outside the studio. Giacobetti presents an artist’s studio that has been closed, almost airless, for a long time…there are scents of dust, old, dry wood and oil.
As I smell the burning Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne candle, I detect a spooky aroma from my past. My grandmother kept Victorian-era hurricane lamps handy for power outages, and those glass lamps, full of oil, their thick cotton wicks aflame, smelled a lot like Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne. I also detect hints of wood scent, but this wood smells more like brittle chalk than a sap-rich, living tree in the forest or a piece of freshly harvested lumber. There is also a touch of utilitarian (Emergency!) candles…there’s nothing fancy (sweet or honey-like) in these tapers.
Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne is a candle to light the imagination; especially if your imagination finds flickering images in the shadows, and hears muffled voices in the stillness.
The Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne candle (made with Diptyque wax) burns cleanly and (almost) evenly — let the entire top of the candle liquify with each burn to avoid an uneven candle surface. Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne’s throw is best suited to single rooms, not large spaces. To burn this candle in a room with windows open to fresh air is to waste its effect of conjuring closed spaces and solitude; Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne is a candle for the bedside table where you can enjoy it up close. The candle comes in a padded, brown-paper envelope and includes a round, cardboard candle coaster in the same color as the walls in Cézanne‘s studio. Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne is available in the U.S. at Luckyscent; $60 (approx. 55-hr. burn time).
Look here for the complete story of the Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne candle and for a list of retailers in Europe who stock it. The candle is permanently available at the Atelier Cézanne gift shop in Aix-en-Provence. The candle stands in stark contrast to Cézanne’s bold, color-saturated paintings, and I’d love to know how the candle is selling (I doubt it will appeal to a large audience).
* Giacobetti created Andrée Putman (a design associate of Beaurin’s) Préparation Parfumée in 2001, and Silex perfume for Beaurin’s exhibition at Le CRAC in Sète, France in 2005.
Oh, I want one!! What a cool review, thanks, Kevin!
Jolie: you’re welcome
Very evocative review – and candle, it sounds like! Hubby, infant daughter and me went on the deluxe Cezanne studio tour when we were in Aix in 2007. Everybody else on the tour was francophone, so they asked if it was okay to give the tour in French. We said fine – I can usually comprehend some French from my schooldays if people speak slowly, and I thought I could give B the gist – and for the next 90 minutes a completely baffling tide of rapid-fire French washed over us. So we had plenty of time to look around closely and sniff the air.
Erin…wow…a 90 min tour in that space IS deluxe
I don’t think I’ve ever lusted after a candle like I do this one. Wonderful review! And so much nicer to have a “masculine” candle than the suffocatingly gourmand or floral ones…
I love the idea that a candle could evoke an artist’s studio in which it would be appropriate for there to be a candle burning in the evening…the perfect medium for the message.
There goes 60 bucks that would have gone toward perfume.
yesterday: Hope you like it…certainly difficult to buy this any way BUT unsniffed
Wow. Old closed-in spaces and dust and dry wood… dust is Death on my allergies, so I try to avoid the actual thing, but the smell is truly something… wow.
And turpentine? I love the smell of turpentine. My grandmother painted china, and I loved to help her clean her brushes. Wow.
Ha! I had the same reaction: this sounds like the perfect way to provoke an asthma attack. Fortunately, I don’t like that combined smell of dust and dry wood. . . probably because from early childhood I associated it with respiratory distress.
GG: then this is NOT for you
Mals: I guess a candle is your only “clean dust’ option!
I’m not really ‘in’ on the world of candles (although this one sounds fascinating)–but I do adore that image! It’s inspiring serious loft envy. I’m assuming it’s not a photo of Cézanne‘s actual studio?
Meg: It IS the Atelier Cezanne.
Meg, I’m with you–not really into candles the way I am to personal fragrance. But I wish someone I knew had one of these just so I could sniff it once!
If it allegedly smells like that place looks than I may just convert!
Kevin sure is doing his level best to influence us, huh?!
This really is a photo of Cézanne‘s studio. I went to visit it in Aix en Provence a few years ago. I would love to smell the candle after reading the review!
Oh man I love Olivia Giacobetti! I have to check this out…
Alicia: indeed…she’s not predictable
That’s what I love about her! That, and I can usually expect that even if I don’t personally like something, I can at least appreciate it.
I love the smell of oil paints! This is reminding me of the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, a recreation of his abode in the actual space where he lived, furnished with antiques from that time period in accordance with an inventory compiled when Rembrandt declared bankruptcy. Even his cabinet of curiosities, easel with paints and a grindstone with paint pigments have been reproduced, so the smell is lovely and you feel you are standing where Rembrandt did. No dust, though!
Kevin, thanks for this lovely review and for reminding me that I really want to order this candle (done!).
Noz: just a “hunch”…but I think you’ll like it. report back….
That actually remind me of our old library. Except for turpentine of course. I can’t forget that pleasant smell.
this is right near where I work. I have been there once, honestly, it isn’t really worth the entrance fee. The candle sounds interesting.
Okay, I’ll say it: atchoo!
gezudeheit!
Kevin you sell home fragrance better than they do! Ive never been so sure I must have something until you write about it….
I got this candle on your recommendation, Kevin. It’s magnificent. This and the Adler Hashish candle are my two best (most satisfying, beautiful, enjoyable, …) candle purchases of the past year, if not the past several. I love your nose (and your prose).
Michael.j: Whew! glad you liked them (and thanks)!