Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and His Wife

This magnificent double portrait was painted in 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 publicly exhibited for a century. Lavoisier is known for his pioneering studies of gunpowder, oxygen, and the chemical composition of water. In 1789 he published a treatise on chemistry illustrated by his wife. Despite his services to both the monarchy and the revolutionary regime, he was guillotined.