Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie Anne Lavoisier (Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836)

Jacques Louis David French

Not on view

A landmark of European portraiture that asserts a modern, scientifically minded couple in fashionable but simple dress, this painting was nonetheless excluded from the Salon of 1789 for fears it would further ignite revolutionary zeal. Technical analysis has revealed that a first iteration excluded the scientific instruments and would have been a far more conventional portrait of a wealthy, fashionable couple of the tax-collector class. Lavoisier was a pioneering chemist credited with the discovery of oxygen and the chemical composition of water through experiments in which his wife actively collaborated. However, he was also involved in studies of gunpowder and a misunderstanding about his removal of this precious commodity from the Bastille in the summer of 1789 threw his alliances into question. This mishap and his status as a tax collector (the more prosaic means by which he funded his scientific research) led him to be guillotined in 1794.

#5020. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) and His Wife (Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze, 1758-1836)

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  1. 5020. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) and His Wife (Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze, 1758-1836)
  2. 2214. The Art of Dress, Part 1
  3. 2230. The Art of Dress, Part 2
  4. 932. Kids: European Paintings, 1250-1800
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie Anne Lavoisier (Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836), Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels), Oil on canvas

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