Ein Chemiker in seinem Laboratorium (A Chemist in his Laboratory)

2025-07-09T10:53:12-04:00

This lithograph by Carl Straub, after a painting of the same subject by David Teniers II, shows the interior of a chemist's laboratory with a man seated in front of a furnace. He tends a glowing fire with a pair of hand-bellows as a distillation apparatus heats beside him. The room is littered with bottles, animal skulls, books, flasks and jars of varying sizes, indicating a variety of alchemical works. In the background, a group of apprentices is shown seated around a table, attentively listening as a man in a fur-lined robe discusses the flask he holds. This is likely a uroscopy, or a medical diagnosis via the examination of urine. Close by, another assistant stokes the fires of a larger furnace with an enormous mechanical bellows. A stuffed reptile hangs from the ceiling above, while a small dog curls on a pillow on the floor at lower right.