Harold Varmus at the unveiling of his NIH Director's portrait (image 2) Standing beside Dr. Varmus (who had since left NIH three years earlier to head the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York) is the portrait's creator, John R. Friedman.. 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. Friedman's previous 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. Produced: [15 January 2003] National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Office of NIH History National Institutes of Health. Office of NIH History The National Institutes of Health (U.S.) Crawford, John Photographic prints Archival Materials Still Image 1 pages nlm:nlmuid-101584926X223-img 101584926X223 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101584926X223 Profiles ID: MVBBPD No linguistic content Profiles in Science