Pre-Raphaelite Society
  • Home
  • PRS Podcast
  • Blog
  • The Society
    • About the Society
    • The PRS Team
    • Publications
    • Resources
    • DONATE
    • PRS Privacy Policy
  • Membership
    • About Membership
    • Become a Member
    • Renew Membership
    • Gift Membership
    • Corporate Membership
  • The Review
    • The PRS Review
    • PRS Review Archive >
      • PRS Review Archive Index
      • 2017-2020 Index
      • 2014-2016 Index
      • 2011-2013 Index
      • 2008-2010 Index
      • 2002-2007 Index
      • 1993-2001 Index
    • Information for Contributors
    • The PRS - USA
  • EVENTS
  • Competitions
  • Project Funding
  • PRS Store
  • Victorian Web
  • Contact Us
Picture
Picture

The Smell of New York: Sir Philip Burne-Jones Sniffs Manhattan

10/6/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Excerpts from his interview with the New York Tribune, upon his arrival in the US in 1902

“Let me first state what you have probably observed, if you have been in Europe,” he said. “and what you have read about, anyway. London, Paris, Vienna, Venice, but most particularly London, have their peculiar odors, which one whose nose is sensitive to smells soon learns to know, and forever after associates with the cities, never for an instant confusing one with the other. The smell of London is particularly pungent, and rather unpleasant, due, I suppose, to the smoke.”

“But I can assure you that New York has its own characteristic smell, just as much as London or Paris or Venice. As my steamer came up the bay, out of the weeks run in the Atlantic, my nostrils suddenly filled with an entirely new smell. It was like nothing I had ever smelled before - at least it was not the same thing that I had smelled. I took a deep inhalation and cried: Ah! a new sensation! Here is New York; I smell it; I shall always know it now!”

“What is this smell like?” the New Yorker asked.
“Well, said Sir Philip, I can’t describe it. It is not at all unpleasant, rather the opposite. It approximates a perfume, in fact. It is more like the smell of Paris than anything else I know - due to the clear atmosphere of both cities, the absence of smoke, I presume. Nor can one detect the the odor of cooking, which must play a part in the final composition of this perfume that emanates from and saturates every part of your great, hiving city.”

“Yes,” said the artist, “every town has its characteristic smell, as well as its conduct. I am going to Boston soon. I will watch for the New England smell.”

From the PRSUS newsletter / Number 47 / Fall 2017

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    PRS BLOG

    Welcome to the PRS Blog. Here you'll find announcements, exhibition notices, and anecdotes...
    A place for you to learn,
    to comment and to participate. Welcome!

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

The Aims of the Pre-Raphaelite Society:

"To promote the study of the works and lives of, and also to promote the wider appreciation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their successors locally, nationally and internationally; to publish or encourage publication of, writings relating to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their successors; to hold meetings, conferences and seminars of members and others who have an interest in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their successors and to arrange visits to places of local, national and international interest, and to co-operate with other societies with similar objectives."
Picture
UK Registered Charity 1095111
  • Home
  • PRS Podcast
  • Blog
  • The Society
    • About the Society
    • The PRS Team
    • Publications
    • Resources
    • DONATE
    • PRS Privacy Policy
  • Membership
    • About Membership
    • Become a Member
    • Renew Membership
    • Gift Membership
    • Corporate Membership
  • The Review
    • The PRS Review
    • PRS Review Archive >
      • PRS Review Archive Index
      • 2017-2020 Index
      • 2014-2016 Index
      • 2011-2013 Index
      • 2008-2010 Index
      • 2002-2007 Index
      • 1993-2001 Index
    • Information for Contributors
    • The PRS - USA
  • EVENTS
  • Competitions
  • Project Funding
  • PRS Store
  • Victorian Web
  • Contact Us