Framed photograph of Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (1852-1911) and Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) in a laboratory. The photograph depicts the two men standing behind a table examining a scientific apparatus. The frame is from F.W. Mittentzwey-Windisch, a frame factory and art store in Leipzig, Germany. The piece belonged to the Bredig family. Around 1894, Georg Bredig (1868-1944) completed a portion of his post-doctoral work in van’t Hoff’s laboratory in Amsterdam.

Ostwald and van 't Hoff are considered to be among the founding fathers of the field of physical chemistry. Van't Hoff, a Dutch chemist, received in 1901 the first Nobel prize in Chemistry “in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions.” Ostwald was a German chemist and philosopher who, in 1909, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on catalysis and investigations of the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction. When he retired in 1906, Ostwald studied art, philosophy, and politics.