Projet pour la décoration du Palais de la Lumière

This gouache is the preliminary study for the mural painting La Fée Electricité (Laffaille, nos. 1736-1742; coll. Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris) which Dufy was commissioned to execute for the Pavilion de la Electricité (also known as the Palais de la Lumiére) at the 1937 Paris Exposition. Dufy's massive composition, the largest painting in the world, celebrated the union of nature and technology. Across the lower part of the painting the artist portrays numerous scientists and inventors, set against a backdrop of scenes from nature, agriculture, industry and culture. The present study is related to the fifth section of the mural, which shows a transition from a landscape on the right side to the beginnings of industry on the left.