Histoire du blé : La Fabrication du pain : Esquisse pour l'école de la rue Dombasle, 15ème arrondissement de Paris

Paul Baudoüin's 1875 sketch for a mural depicting the fabrication of bread for a school in the 15th arrondissement of Paris belongs to the tradition of municipal decorative painting commissioned by the Third Republic to celebrate the dignity of labor and the productive foundations of French society. The bread-making sequence — part of a larger series on the history of wheat — was an appropriate subject for a school decoration, connecting children to the agricultural and artisanal origins of their daily sustenance. Municipal mural decoration was a significant component of Third Republic cultural policy, and these sketches in the Petit Palais represent the preparatory stage of that public project.

As a mural sketch, the handling prioritizes compositional clarity over elaborate finish: figures and gestures are defined with sufficient precision to convey the intended design, while the paint application remains loose and exploratory. The warm palette would be adjusted in the final mural to work at architectural scale in a school interior.