The Sense of Smell, Philippe Mercier (1747)
Like in The Sense of Touch and The Sense of Taste, this piece features two pairs of lovers, one down-to-earth and the other more romantic, meeting in a park. The young man in the tricorn hat has been out hunting, and next to him is his gun dog, drawn to a brace of partridges resting on the ledge. His companion, a girl in a straw hat who may be a shepherdess or a milkmaid, greets him with a basket of ripe melons. He picks one up, holding it to his nose to check its ripeness. The other couple is dressed more elegantly. The young woman picks a sprig of fragrant jasmine from her flower basket and holds it up for her lover to enjoy.
