Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris in 1743, inheriting the family fortune at the age of five upon the death of his mother.

At the age of twenty-eight, he consolidated his social and economic position marrying Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, the thirteen-year-old daughter of a senior member of the Ferme Générale. The couple was famously portrayed by Jacques Louis David in 1788.

His interests were varied and his contribution on topics such as the phenomenon of combustion, the chemical nomenclature and respiration physiology was remarkable.

Lavoisier also attempted to introduce new reforms in French monetary and taxation systems and to help the peasantry; but this kindly inclination was not sufficient to save him from Marat’s allegations and later from the Guillotine.

A year and a half after his death, Lavoisier was exonerated by the French Government.

This 19th century bust, made from patinated plaster is a workshop version of the original crafted by Karl Aurelius Micheli (1834-1908). Micheli, sculptor and member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, and his workshop, specialised in portrait busts of historical figures such as Lavoisier.