Palais de la Découverte Project, Paris, France (Plan of upper level and exhibits)
Oscar Nitzchke
American, born Germany. 1900–1991
Frantz Jourdain
French, 1847–1935
Paul Nelson
American, 1895–1979
1938
A large ink-and-graphite drawing on board that lays out Paul Nelson’s 1938 design for the upper level and exhibits of Paris’s Palais de la Découverte, intended to organize galleries, circulation, and displays so visitors would experience scientific ideas in a deliberate order.
What strikes you first is the crisp, technical draughtsmanship—precise black ink lines, subtle graphite shading, and handwritten annotations—that turns sweeping curves and clustered galleries into a readable choreography of movement and spectacle.
As a working plan for a major interwar science museum, it exemplifies modernist approaches to exhibition design, showing how architects translated educational ambitions into spatial sequences and helped reimagine museums as active pedagogical environments.
Medium
Ink and graphite on board mounted on board
Dimensions
28 1/4 x 50 1/4" (71. x 127.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architects
Accession
100.2013
Art Terms
Exhibitions
