Francesca Bianchi Luxe Calme Volupté courtesy of Francesca Bianchi©
Les soleils couchants
Revêtent les champs,
Les canaux, la ville entière,
D’hyacinthe et d’or;
Le monde s’endort
Dans une chaude lumière.
Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté. ~ L’Invitation au Voyage from Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire
Edouard Manet’s The Grand Canal (1875) via wikiart. Manet was Baudelaire’s lifelong friend
The setting suns adorn the fields, the canals, the entire city in hyacinth and gold; the world slumbers in a warm glow. There, all is order and beauty, luxury, serenity and eroticism. (my translation). Independent Amsterdam-based Italian perfumer Francesca Bianchi is highly regarded, and rightly so: her panoply of perfumes provide artfully composed, long-lasting fragrances for every taste. I find that a large number of her perfumes possess either an overt or underlying animalic gourmandise, which may account for their popularity during these days of pandemic malaise.
Francesca Bianchi of Francesca Bianchi Perfumes courtesy of Francesca Bianchi©
Luxe Calme Volupté, Francesaca Bianchi’s most recent release, was inspired by both the decadent poetry of Charles Baudelaire’s L’Invitation au Voyage (from his collection Les Fleurs du Mal) and a famous painting entitled Luxe, Calme et Volupté by his contemporary Henri Matisse. Ms. Bianchi makes it clear that her desire was to create a perfume which would transport its wearer (and those in their charmed circle) to serene, sybaritic environs; after all, there continue to be limitations upon travel no matter where one looks. If not literal, then figurative odysseys are always possible when cloaked in a vapor of luxurious exoticism.
Henri Matisse Luxe, Calme et Volupté (1904) via wiki
In L’Invitation au Voyage, Baudelaire rhapsodizes about the blue hour (l’heure bleue), the crepuscular hues of gold mingled with shades of violet which bathe the scenery he envisions. It happens to be one of his less tormented erotic poems; tranquility and carnal pleasures are viewed in a milieu of light, not the darkness for which he is better remembered, and culminates in a tone of wistful hope. Matisse’s vivid painting Luxe, Calme et Volupté brilliantly illustrates a joyful scene which might equally be renamed “Le Déjeuner sur la plage” (Luncheon on the Beach) as opposed to Baudelaire’s lifelong friend Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass): a light repast is served by the sea in the presence of what appears to be tropical vegetation, resplendent with a bevy of leisurely female nudes. We understand its sensual appeal – hues reminiscent of Bonnard rendered in a semi-pointilistic manner, tranquil and cheerfully optimistic.
Baudelaire drawing of Jeanne Duval
How does the perfumer intertwine so many artistic elements? I find this the most intriguing part. We are aware of various players: contemporary artists known to Baudelaire (the painters Manet, arguably his closest friend; Matisse; Alfred Sisley and many more). We haven’t touched upon the two muses who haunted him, or the subject of carnality, sexual vampirism, or his fascination with and equation of the binding of sex and death which so shocked his peers and audience. One such muse was Jeanne Duval, the Haitian-born Creole actress and dancer with whom the poet maudit (as he was known – ‘maudit’ means ‘cursed’) shared his checkered existence for twenty years. She was his Black Venus, and his most sensual poems lionize her with sexual ferocity in Les Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil). The other, from 1857-1862 – was Apollonie Sabatier, an artist’s model and courtesan who held a salon near the Place Pigalle frequented by such luminaries as Flaubert, Berlioz, Victor Hugo, Gustave Doré, Manet, sculptor August Clésinger and Théophile Gautier. These women, albeit alluring in very different ways – were the impetus which drove Baudelaire’s most renowned work – and they inhabit the animalic aspects of this perfume as rudiments of danger and desire.
Auguste Clésinger’s Apollonie Sabatier as Woman Bitten by a Serpent (1847) at Musée D’Orsay via wiki
In Francesca Bianchi Luxe Calme Volupté, Ms. Bianchi has chosen several threads with which to embroider her perfume. As is often the case, zesty citruses provide the sweet/tart/tangy introduction which ushers in golden-smelling fruit, flowers and resin. Some are literal: hyacinth is a very green floral with a slightly indolic edge to it – and when the poet speaks of hyacinth and gold, it is a component which does not feel violet-hued. Distinctly verdant materials (galbanum, vetiver) are employed, yet this perfume does not read as green to my nose. My overall impression is that of foreign glamour: tropical fruits (undisclosed), the animalic intoxication of heavily floral ylang-ylang, opulent resinous density of opoponax and benzoin, sandalwood and vetiver from far-flung locales across the globe. Iris contributes a powdery dry silky sweetness. Francesca Bianchi has gifted us with a golden perfume, fit for poet or painter. It shares the tendril of sensual mischief for which she is widely admired. All the filaments converge, thus generating the radiance of her favorite poem and painting; it’s a hedonist’s gourmand.
Notes: Bitter orange, Green tangerine, Galbanum, Hyacinth, Tropical fruits, Ylang ylang, Iris, Benzoin, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Opoponax
Sample kindly provided by Ann Bouterse of Indigo Perfumery – many thanks! My nose is my own…
~ Ida Meister, Deputy and Natural Perfumery Editor
Francesca Bianchi Luxe Calme Volupté courtesy of Indigo Perfumery
Thanks to the generosity of Ann Bouterse of Indigo Perfumery, we have a 30 ml bottle of Francesca Bianchi Luxe Calme Volupte for one registered reader, (click here if you aren’t registered) in USA ONLY
OR
If you live in the USA or EU Francesca Bianchi is offering a complete discovery kit 2x 12 (all her perfumes including Francesca Bianchi Luxe Calme Volupté)
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Francesca Bianchi was co-named best 2019 Indie House in our Best of Fragrance awards here by our Editor-in-Chief Michelyn Camen
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