Antwerp museum sells own perfume inspired by Flemish Masters

Perfume-maker Laura de Coninck has created a fragrance line inspired by the Flemish masters, the unique architecture of the Antwerp Museum of Fine Arts (KMSKA) and a painter’s studio.

The project is a collaboration with KMSKA director Carmen Willems and Paris-trained Sonia Constant, who has created fragrances for Narciso Rodriguez, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci and Tom Ford.

“When I worked for Marie-Claire, I realised how much I was captivated by the world of perfumery,” said de Coninck, a former journalist with a master's degree in arts. “I interviewed a lot of perfume-makers and then one day I met Sonia Constant.”

Constant introduced de Coninck to perfumery and helped her secure an education at the Givaudan perfumery school, where de Coninck said she remains something of an artist in residence.

After meeting Willems, the idea for a perfume that would evoke the museum corridors, the atmosphere and world of the Flemish primitives, or the scent of a painter's studio was born.

KMSKA set up a multi-disciplinary team, including a perfume historian and a curator of collections. It identified themes such as chiaroscuro, Rubens’ gardens and all the facets of the artist’s studio or an experience among the museum’s works.

The result is "KMSKA", an "experience" fragrance made from natural and bio-sourced ingredients, designed to capture the soul of the museum.

Retailed for €145 in the museum gift shop, it contains vetiver from Haiti, patchouli from Indonesia, cedarwood from Texas, sweet myrrh from Somalia, centifolia roses, Bourbon geranium, cinnamon bark oil, bergamot from Italy, and black pepper from Madagascar.

Other museums such as MoMA in New York City and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam have also created their own perfumes.