MARGINALIA
Mme. Lavoisier
Roald Hoffmann
In 1771 Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze was a lively girl of 13. When her
mother passed away, the young woman left a convent school to help
her father as a hostess. Her vivacity attracted a friend of the
family, the 50-year-old Count d'Amerval. A remarkable letter
survives in Cornell's Lavoisier collection in which Marie Anne's
father diplomatically yet directly declines the Count's
proposal.
Another suitor was much more welcome. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier had
a law degree, but his passion was for science. As a young man, he
impressed the French scientific establishment with his geological
and chemical research. Lavoisier had just bought a half share in the
Ferme Générale—the ancien
régime's version of what the Internal Revenue Service
might be heading for in some conservative dream—a private
company collecting taxes for the crown. Marie Anne's father was one
of the leading "Farmers."
Lavoisier was a frequent visitor at the Paulze house. He and Marie
Anne played romantic board games, but also spoke of geology,
chemistry and astronomy. When the father proposed a marriage, both
young people welcomed it. Antoine was 28, Marie Anne 13 when they
married. A lovely self-portrait of Mme. Lavoisier survives, which
she must have painted not long after.
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