Unveiling the Right Side
The skeletal muscle got geared up to work with a smile on his face;
The benign adipose tissue regained his old poise and grace.
The islets of Langerhans of the pancreas heaved a huge sigh of relief;
They had all been retrieved from the jaws of death and eternal grief.
Author Contributions: All authors confirmed they have contributed to
the intellectual content of this paper and have met the following 3 requirements: (a) significant contributions to the conception and design,
acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (b) drafting
or revising the article for intellectual content; and (c) final approval of
the published article.
Role of Sponsor: The funding organizations played no role in the
design of study, choice of enrolled patients, review and interpretation
of data, or preparation or approval of manuscript.
Authors’ Disclosures or Potential Conflicts of Interest: No authors
declared any potential conflicts of interest.
DOI: 10.1373/clinchem.2011.162693
International Year of Chemistry 2011
Marie Curie—An Unusual Image
Marek H. Dominiczak*
Maria Skłodowska (1867–1934) was born in Warsaw at
a time when Poland had temporarily vanished from the
map of Europe, after having been divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Her upbringing was marked
by resistance to the attempts to blot out Polish culture
in the Russia-occupied territory. Partly because of that,
she received a well-rounded basic education in both the
humanities and science, and became fascinated by the
latter. In 1891, she left for Paris to pursue university
studies and earned degrees in mathematics and physics
from the Sorbonne. In 1895 she married a physicist
Pierre Curie, with whom she worked until his tragic
death in 1906. She became known as Marie Curie, except in her native Poland, where Curie-Skłodowska is
always used.
The turn of the 20th century was a fascinating time
to be a physicist. In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
had published a paper on the discovery of X-rays.
Henri Becquerel had observed new “uranium rays.”
The Curies were apparently inspired to study these
phenomena by the subsequent experiments of Lord
Kelvin, and their work eventually led to the discovery
College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
* Address correspondence to the author at: Department of Biochemistry, Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow G12 0YN, UK. Fax ⫹44-141-211-3452; e-mail
[email protected].
650 Clinical Chemistry 57:4 (2011)
of 2 new elements: polonium and radium. The discovery of radium quickly became clinically important because of the effect of radioactivity on rapidly reproducing cells, and radium, at the time, was the only available
source of such radiation. Thus, Institut du Radium was
built in Paris (1912–1914), where it housed both research and clinical groups (the latter led by Claudius
Regaud). Later, in 1932, a Radium Institute was also
founded in Warsaw.
Marie Curie’s life became one of the true-life legends of science. Her monumental scientific legacy
spans physics and chemistry. She received her first Nobel Prize in 1903, together with Becquerel and Pierre
Curie, for the discovery of radioactivity. The second
one, in 1911, of which she was the sole recipient, was
for the discovery of radium and polonium. Equally important was that her success in the male-dominated
world of high-flying research became a triumphal example of what a woman could achieve.
The beginning of the 20th century was also one of
the most interesting periods in the European arts. The
avant-garde artists had moved from the impressionist
representation of the nuances of nature and light to the
Postimpressionist emphasis on the representation of
emotions and things spiritual. Forms, colors, and composition became means of such representation.
German Expressionism is represented by painters
such as Ernst L. Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Os-
International Year of Chemistry 2011
©Alexei von Jawlensky (1864 –1941).
Marie Curie. Oil on canvas, c. 1905. Private collection.
The Bridgeman Art Library: reproduced with permission.
kar Kokoschka, Emil Nolde, and, later, Max Beckmann, to name only a few. It was sparked by the formation of 2 artist groups: one, called Die Brücke (The
Bridge), beginning in 1905 in Dresden and the other,
known as Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), in Munich. The predecessor of The Blue Rider group was
another group, Neue Künstlervereinigung München
(NKVM, the New Artists Group Munich), which existed between 1909 and 1913.
Alexei von Jawlensky (1864 –1941), who painted
the portrait of Madame Curie shown here, was born in
Torzhok, Russia. He abandoned a military career to
study art in Saint Petersburg under Ilya Repin (1844 –
1930), the most important Russian realist painter. In
1896 he moved to Munich, a city then developing into
one of the most important art centers in Europe. There
he met another Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky, with
whom he remained associated for many years. While
studying in Munich, Jawlensky traveled extensively,
mostly to France. Around 1903, he discovered van
Gogh and Gauguin. In Paris in 1905, he exhibited at the
Salon d’Automne (Autumn Salon), where artists, including Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck, created much
controversy and were famously branded the Fauves
(Wild Beasts) because of their expressive use of nonnaturalistic color. Jawlensky became a proponent of
these new trends and in 1907 worked briefly with
Matisse. In 1909, he founded NVKM together with
Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter.
When Jawlensky painted the portrait of Madame
Curie in 1905, he was still searching for artistic direction. The image is surprisingly realistic, a reminder of
his former training, but the short brush strokes remind
one of van Gogh’s technique. He brightens the effect of
the dark dress by introducing bright red, white, and
yellow into the background, and the crowded colors,
together with a painting hanging on the wall behind
Madame Curie, provide an impression of opulence,
making this image very different from the rather severe
photographs of her we are used to.
The context is that in 1905, after the award of the
Nobel Prize, the Curies achieved a sort of celebrity status in France. The portrait was probably painted at the
height of their popularity. The Marie Curie biographies
celebrate her efforts and achievements but at the same
time make a rather severe impression. Her initial poverty, sacrifice, and incessant hard work, not to mention
the later tragedy of Pierre Curie’s death, tend to dominate her image. Here, refreshingly, we have a glimpse
of something different: a portrait created by a trendy
young artist. Apparently, the Curies, while detesting
excessive publicity, did manage to find some time during this period for theater and contacts with the art
world, such as visits to Rodin’s studio. We know little
about these pursuits, and thus this piece of art adds
something to the dominant narrative of her life filled by
chemistry and physics.
Further Reading
Curie E (Sheean V, translator). Madame Curie: a
biography. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press;
2001. 393 p. This book, written by Marie Curie’s
youngest daughter Eve, was first published by Gallimard in Paris in 1937. This edition is a facsimile of the
1937 edition published in New York. The book became
one of most read biographies ever.
Quinn S. Marie Curie. A life. London: Mandarin;
1996. 509 p. An acclaimed contemporary biography of
Marie Curie.
Rockwell S. The life and legacy of Marie Curie.
Yale J Biol Med 2003;76:167– 80.
Elger D. Expressionism. Cologne: Taschen; 1998.
255 p.
Wilson S, De Chassey E. Paris, capital of the arts
1900 –1968 [catalogue of an exhibition]. London:
Royal Academy of Arts; 2002. 448 p.
Dominiczak MH. Alloys and symbols: Rodin’s The
Thinker. Clin Chem 2011;57:145– 6.
Nobelprize.org. The Nobel Prize in physics 1903.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/
1903/. Details of the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics
Clinical Chemistry 57:4 (2011) 651
International Year of Chemistry 2011
awarded to Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie,
and Marie Curie.
Nobelprize.org. The Nobel Prize in chemistry
1911. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/
laureates/1911/. Details of the 1911 Nobel Prize in
chemistry awarded to Marie Curie.
Author Contributions: All authors confirmed they have contributed to
the intellectual content of this paper and have met the following 3 requirements: (a) significant contributions to the conception and design,
652 Clinical Chemistry 57:4 (2011)
acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (b) drafting
or revising the article for intellectual content; and (c) final approval of
the published article.
Authors’ Disclosures or Potential Conflicts of Interest: No authors
declared any potential conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments: The author thanks Jacky Gardiner for excellent
secretarial assistance.
DOI: 10.1373/clinchem.2011.162842