Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife Marie Anne Pierrette Paulz by David in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2014

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

Artist: Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels)

Date: 1788

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 102 1/4 x 76 5/8 in. (259.7 x 194.6 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, in honor of Everett Fahy, 1977

Accession Number: 1977.10


This magnificent double portrait dates to 1788, when the artist was the standard-bearer of French Neoclassicism. For political reasons, Lavoisier was obliged to withdraw it from the 1789 Salon, and it was not exhibited for a century. Lavoisier was a chemist and famous for his pioneering studies of gunpowder, oxygen, and the chemical composition of water. In 1789 he published a chemistry textbook illustrated by his wife. Despite his services to both the monarchy and the revolutionary regime, he was guillotined.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436106