Musée d’Orsay · 1885
Portrait of Louis Pasteur
Albert Edelfelt
Edelfelt paints the scientist Louis Pasteur surrounded by his own laboratory equipment, holding up a jar containing tissue from an animal infected with rabies — the very research Pasteur used to develop his life-saving rabies vaccine.
Why it matters
Edelfelt paints the scientist Louis Pasteur surrounded by his own laboratory equipment, holding up a jar containing tissue from an animal infected with rabies — the very research Pasteur used to develop his life-saving rabies vaccine.
Look closer
Notice how the cluttered glass bottles and equipment around Pasteur are painted with the same careful precision as his face — Edelfelt wanted viewers to understand this was a working scientist, not a posed dignitary.
This portrait earned Edelfelt France's Legion of Honour when it was shown at the 1886 Salon, and remains the single most famous image of Pasteur ever painted.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €1.5–3.5 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.