He was educated at the Ecole Normale, and returned thither as director of studies in 1838, after some years spent in provincial schoolmasterships.
His father, a professor of philosophy, gave him an excellent education at the Stanislas College and the Ecole Normale, where he graduated in 1848.
The very fine torso of Athena in the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris, which has unfortunately lost its head, may perhaps best serve to help our imagination in reconstructing a Pheidian original.
But his progress was so rapid that in two or three years he was able to take his master's place at the lecture-table, and Fourcroy and Vauquelin were so satisfied with his performance that they procured for him a school appointment in 1797 as teacher of chemistry, and in 1798 one as repetiteur at the Ecole Polytechnique.
In 1804 Vauquelin resigned his professorship at the College de France and successfully used his influence to obtain the appointment for Thenard, who six years later, after Fourcroy's death, was further elected to the chairs of chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Faculte des Sciences.
