Category: Just Because

Just Because: Daisy Duck and Perfume (!)

Disney Sweden 1970s

I came across this peculiar Disney item on eBay a few days ago. I don’t even remember what I was searching for, but I can tell you this much: it wasn’t a Swedish 1970s trading card of Daisy Duck dousing herself with perfume. This character has never been a favorite of mine, but for some reason this image made me laugh. Maybe I’m just reacting to the way she’s spraying the perfume directly onto her bill rather than her, uh, pulse points…? Where would an anthropomorphized duck wear perfume, come to think of it? And which perfume would she wear? And is “Kajsa” the Swedish equivalent of “Daisy?” I have no idea. So many questions.

VOGUE, February 20, 1908

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I love this VOGUE cover (by illustrator Will Foster) for several reasons: the model’s impossibly long neck and Gibson Girl-like features, the rose fastening the front of her white feather wrap, and—last but not least—the bottle of perfume that she has just unstoppered. We can only imagine the scent she is inhaling, but we can guess that it is brightening her mood and warming her soul on a cloudy winter day.

Image: via Conde Nast Store.

Luigi Russolo, Profumo (Perfume), 1910

Russolo-Luigi-Profumo

This is a painting titled Profumo (Perfume) by the Italian Futurist artist Luigi Russolo. It is dated 1910 and it belongs to the collections of Il Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, in Italy.

I like the way Russolo shows the sensory experience of smell, translating fragrance into colors and lines that engulf the female subject.

Image: Luigi Russolo, Profumo, via Il Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto.

Just Because: Cupids and Psyche Making Perfume

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I’ve never been to the Getty in Los Angeles, but if ever do make the trip, I’ll be keeping an eye out for this antique fresco depicting three cupids and Psyche preparing perfume. Look at the cabinet at left, with its shelves of scent bottles!

Image: Fresco fragment with Cupids and Psyche making perfume, third quarter of 1st century, fresco, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 72.AG.81. You can view the full object record here.