Secondary sourcePainting

Rhazes in His Laboratory at Baghdad

Ernest Board (attributed)

A 20th-century painted reconstruction imagining Rhazes at work as an alchemist in his Baghdad laboratory.

A later imagined scene showing Rhazes as an alchemist, reflecting his historical reputation as a chemist as well as a physician.

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Framed oil painting of a bearded man in a white turban and white robes with a red sash, stirring a bowl over a small furnace in a dim laboratory. Glass bottles and a large clay jar sit on a table; a seated younger figure in a red cap watches from the right. — Rhazes, Arab physician and alchemist, in his laboratory at Baghdad. Wellcome Collection.

About this source

What it is

This oil painting, part of the Wellcome Collection's Iconographic Collections, imagines Rhazes, described as an Arab physician and alchemist, working in his laboratory in Baghdad. It shows a bearded man in white robes and turban stirring a bowl over a small furnace, surrounded by glass bottles and jars, while a younger figure watches.

Why it matters

This painting was made long after Rhazes's lifetime as a modern imagining of what his alchemical work might have looked like. It reflects how 20th-century artists pictured early scientists at work, blending historical interest with imagination rather than being based on any surviving contemporary image.

Look closer

What in this scene looks historically accurate, and what might be the artist's invention?
Why might the artist have included a younger figure watching Rhazes work?
Since this was painted centuries later, what can and can't it tell us about Rhazes's real laboratory?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Al-Razi on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.