When I was a child, I used to have a recurring nightmare of a woman dressed in black walking through a graveyard. She wore and outfit from the 1890's a long dress and a large veiled hat with pigeon wings on it. She had a furled parasol which she used as a walking stick. I could see only her silhouette as she picked her way through the tombstones. I got the definite impression of leather, black finery, heavy perfume, high status, and magnificent sorrow. She is a staple in the Jungian lexicon of characters who appear to sleepers and I made a fragrance which should present her to you just as I saw her as a child. A bright, bitter, dry, chypre-type of a scent, void of sweetness but very beautiful. Lavender, neroli, moss, earth, clove, and a light touch of vetiver. Very refined.
The building is an elaborate mausoleum on the grounds of Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati Ohio, and the lady is by Edgar Degas.
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