Histoire du blé : Le Criblage : Esquisse pour l'école de la rue Dombasle, 15ème arrondissement de Paris

Paul Baudoüin's 1875 sketch for a mural depicting the sieving (criblage) of grain is the companion piece to his bread-making scene, part of the history of wheat series for a school in the 15th arrondissement. The criblage — sieving grain to separate it from chaff and debris — was a fundamental step in bread production and a subject that allowed Baudoüin to depict vigorous physical labor with clear didactic purpose. These municipal mural commissions were part of the Third Republic's cultural program of secular civic education, providing schools with imagery that connected children to the productive labor underpinning French society rather than to religious narrative.

As a compositional sketch, the handling is loose and exploratory: the sieving action requires figures in dynamic poses that Baudoüin works out here before committing to the final mural. The spatial arrangement of figures is the primary concern at this stage, with the warm palette suggesting the dusty grain-processing environment.