The other scent… er, odor… sent out was one approximating a foul-smelling canal. Indeed, the spritzer left this reporter with the impression of a dirty gym bag full of spoiled fish.

—  Remember the Fleeting: Scents in Colour exhibit, opening (hopefully) at the Mauritshuis in The Hague later this year? (We posted about it here and here.) They've got the scent kits almost ready to ship, and they've sent out two of the fragrances to journalists. Read more in Ever Wonder What a 17th-Century Dutch Canal Smells Like? No? Well a New Show Invites You to Sniff the Odors of Art History Anyway at ArtNet.

Anyone will be able to purchase the scent kit, from which I now know the drowsy nutmeg-orange-clove smell of pomanders in Dutch portraits, and the pepper and cinnamon of Willem van Mieris’s A Grocer’s Shop. But far more interesting, and less predictable, is the fetid odour of Dutch canals.

— More info on the Fleeting: Scents in Colour exhibit, opening at the Mauritshuis in The Hague later this year. Read more in Watch and sniff: how to smell a Dutch still life... at The Guardian.

Ever wondered what a still life smells like? Or whether a beautiful pastoral landscape actually smelt of manure? Well, the Mauritshuis in The Hague will be bringing 17th-century Dutch paintings to life with scent dispensers (which will apparently be “coronavirus-proof”) for its exhibition Fleeting: Scents in Colour. These will range from the “phenomenal stink of [Amsterdam's] canals” in works such as Jan van der Heyden’s View of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal with the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam (around 1670), to the scent of powdery flowers and overripe fruit in Abraham Mignon’s Still Life of Flowers and Fruit (1670). 

— Read more in Smelly shows, fast cars and a swamp in a nightclub: the strangest art exhibitions coming up in 2021 at The Art Newspaper.

What does a Vincent van Gogh painting smell like? If it's a vase of sunflowers, you'll get a spritz of citrus and lavender to evoke the south of France, where the post-impressionist created these works. As you're served wine and cheese, Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C Major will be piped through the speakers.

— The Lume, an "immersive gallery" in Melbourne, opens next month. Read more in You've never seen (or smelled, or tasted) a van Gogh like this at The Age.