Pasteur's portrait by Edelfelt

Albert Edelfelt's 1885 portrait of Louis Pasteur in his laboratory is one of the most celebrated scientific portraits of the nineteenth century — an image that captures the great microbiologist in the act of examining a sample, the work of science rendered as visual subject. Pasteur was at the height of his fame in 1885, having just announced the rabies vaccine, and Edelfelt's portrait — exhibited at the Paris Salon to enormous acclaim — carried the prestige of both sitter and artist. The Musée d'Orsay's collection of this work gives it permanent institutional recognition as a masterpiece of Franco-Finnish nineteenth-century painting.

Edelfelt brilliantly integrates figure and laboratory setting — the naturalistic light from a window illuminating both Pasteur's face and the scientific equipment with the same clear, honest directness. His brushwork is fluid and observational, capturing the scientist's concentrated absorption in his work without the stiffness of conventional official portraiture.