Standing beside Dr. Varmus (who had since left NIH three years earlier to head the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York) is current NIH Director Elias Zerhouni.. At the ceremony, Varmus gave an art history lesson on the portrait, which has him in the foreground seated and looking gregarious in an open-collared shirt, and a prominent backdrop featuring a famous painting, executed by Jacques Louis David in 1788, of French scientist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and his wife Marie Pierette Paulze. The work was from artist John R. Friedman, whose portraits of other scientific leaders interested Varmus enough to commission him.. More on the ceremony can be found in the 18 February 2003 edition of the NIH Record.
Copyright:
The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)