Go to the board | Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)

“The examiner, this time, was the illustrious geometer Legendre, of whom, a few years after, I had the honour of becoming the colleague and the friend. I entered his study at the moment when M. T, who was to undergo his examination before me, having fainted away, was being carried out in the arms of two servants. I thought that this circumstance would have moved and softened M. Legendre; but it had no such effect. “What is your name," he said to me sharply. "Arago," I answered. "You are not French then?” “If I was not French I should not be before you; for I have never heard of any one being admitted into the school unless his nationality had been proved." "I maintain that he is not French whose name is Arago." “I maintain, on my side, that I am French, and a very good Frenchman too, however strange my name may appear to you." “Very well; we will not discuss the point farther; go to the board."

I had scarcely taken up the chalk, when M. Legendre, returning to the first subject of his preoccupations, said to me: “You were born in one of the departments recently united to France?” "No, sir; I was born in the department of the Eastern Pyrenees, at the foot of the Pyrenees." "Oh! Why did you not tell me that at once? All is now explained. You are of Spanish origin, are you not?" “Possibly; but in my humble family there are no authentic documents preserved which could enable me to trace back the civil position of my ancestors: each one there is the child of his own deeds. I declare to you again that I am French, and that ought to be sufficient for you."

Julien-Léopold Boilly / Public domain / 1820 watercolor portrait of French mathematicians Adrien-Marie Legendre and Joseph Fourier

Via Wikipedia Commons

The vivacity of this last answer had not disposed M. Legendre in my favour. I saw this very soon; for, having put a question to me which required the use of double integrals, he stopped me, saying: “The method which you are following was not given to you by the professor. Whence did you get it? ““From one of your papers." “Why did you choose it? Was it to bribe me? ““No; nothing was farther from my thoughts. I only adopted it because it appeared to me preferable." "If you are unable to explain to me the reasons for your preference, I declare to you that you shall receive a bad mark, at least as to character."

[…]

I entered this establishment, then, on the nomination of Poisson, my friend, and through the intervention of Laplace. The latter loaded me with civilities. I was happy and proud when I dined in the Rue de Tournon with the great geometer. My mind and my heart were much disposed to admire all, to respect all, that was connected with him who had discovered the cause of the secular equation of the moon, had found in the movement of this planet the means of calculating the ellipticity of the earth, had traced to the laws of attraction the long inequalities of Jupiter and of Saturn, &c. &c. But what was my disenchantment, when one day I heard Madame de Laplace, approaching her husband, say to him, "Will you entrust to me the key of the sugar?”

Excerpted:

Biographies of distinguished scientific men by Arago, F. (François), 1786-1853; Smyth, W. H. (William Henry), 1788-1865. tr;Powell, Baden, 1796-1860. joint tr; Grant, Robert, 1814-1892. joint tr; Fairbairn, William, Sir, 1789-1874

Published 1857

“For two centuries, until the recent discovery of the error in 2005, books, paintings and articles have incorrectly shown a side-view portrait of the obscure French politician Louis Legendre (1752–1797) as that of the mathematician Legendre. The error arose from the fact that the sketch was labelled simply "Legendre" and appeared in a book along with contemporary mathematicians such as Lagrange.” Text Wikipedia/ Source : Duren, Peter (December 2009). "Changing Faces: The Mistaken Portrait of Legendre" (PDF). Notices of the AMS. 56 (11): 1440–1443, 1455.