  About the Artwork
  
  
  Raoul Dufy was commissioned to create a monumental mural painting, The Spirit of Electricity, for the Paris International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life in 1937. To prepare for the mural, he painted the full composition in watercolor and gouache on paper. Today the composition is preserved on five canvases - all in the Detroit Institute of Arts' collection - that can be exhibited together. 

Moving from right to left, Dufy told the store of electricity, beginning with the natural world of ancient Greece and continuing to his own era. One hundred philosophers, scientists, and inventors of the distant and recent past appear in the lower band. In this, the concluding panel at the left, the flying figure of Iris, one of the messengers of the gods, invites visitors to the exposition to a future full of promise thanks to electricity and scientific progress. She carries this message from France to the entire world, as indicated by famous buildings such as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in London, the skyscrapers of New York City, and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. In the lower right, Dufy painted Marie Curie (1867-1934) together with her husband, Pierre Curie (1859-1906). Marie Curie received the Noble Prize twice, and is the only woman included in the mural. Other scientists and inventors in this section include American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931); German physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894); American developer of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922); and the French General Gustave Ferrie (1868-1932), who developed the French wireless telegraph system.

The complete drawing is almost 20 feet (6 meters) long. The final mural painting is ten times larger, measuring 197 feet (60 meters) long and 33 feet (10 meters) high. It was installed in the Pavillion of Light and Electricity at the exposition, together with large circuit breakers and electrical generators. Today it can be seen in the Musee d'art moderne de Paris (City of Paris Museum of Modern Art).
  
  
  Title
  The Spirit of Electricity
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1936 or 1937
  
  Artist
  Raoul Dufy
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1877 - 1953
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  French
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Watercolor, gouache on paper mounted on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 38 1/2 inches × 19 feet 7 inches (97.8 cm × 5 m 96.9 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Modern Art to 1970
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Sara Lee Corporation
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  1999.119.A
  
  
  Copyright
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