Van Gogh Translations 2016 · Amsterdam

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Some paintings stop you in your tracks. Scent makes you stay.

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In 2016, the Van Gogh Museum commissioned a scent translation as part of a special accessibility programme. Alongside 3D-printed reproductions of works from the collection, visitors who are deaf or blind could now experience the paintings through touch, sound — and scent.

Where the original canvasses are untouchable, the reproductions invited a completely different kind of encounter. The scent added a third dimension to that experience: not decorative, but essential. A way into the painting for people who could not access it any other way.

On special exhibition days, other visitors could also smell the paintings next to the reproductions — and the effect was consistent. People slowed down. They leaned in. They spent longer with each work, searching for the connection between what they saw and what they smelled.

Art without barriers

This project sits at the intersection of scent design and inclusive museum practice. By making a painting smellable, an artwork that existed only for sighted visitors became genuinely accessible — experienced through the nose in a way that bypasses the need for sight entirely.