A contemporary of George Washington, Lavoisier was one of the greatest scientists of all times and one of the fathers of modern chemistry. He was particularly interested in oxygen, an element that he first detected and described. Lavoiser is shown as a scholar with books on the floor and propping his head on his fist--in a pensive pose, which had a long tradition for the depiction of scholars in European art. But in particular it recalls Rodin's Thinker, which was shown publicly for the first time in 1888, just two years before Dalou presented his model for this bronze at the Salon.