When entering the Rockefeller Research Building, it is near impossible to miss the colossal and somewhat sultry painting of the French chemist, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, and his collaborator wife Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze. Having replaced the giant leaf panting at the commencement of Welch Hall construction, this piece is a reminder of the rich cultural history of the Rockefeller family.

In 1788, Lavoisier commissioned Jacques-Louis David, a student of the one and only David, paying him 7,000 livres (the livre, a currency established by Charlemagne, was used by the French until 1795). In 1836, this portrait was left to Paulze’s great-niece, who kept it in her family’s collection until 1924, when it was purchased by John D. Rockefeller. Gifted to our university, then called the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, in 1927, it graced the walls of Welch Hall until it was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art exactly 50 years later. The portrait upon which we set our gaze is actually an ultra-high resolution replica that Sir Paul Nurse had presented to RU as a gift and will now forever symbolize the end of his presidential legacy. The replica will be moved back to its original home in Welch Hall once construction is complete.