Centennial Exposition

“ One who likes a gentle, polished sort of art will not be at home here; but for virile, fresh and colorful painting there is no other section that achieves the same high standard. Many of the pictures are so strong and big that they never should have been put in these box-like little rooms, where a proper perspective is impossible. In the paintings there are traces of French and German training, and especially of Impressionism; but the exhibit shows more true national feeling and more individual independence than any other in the building. ”

“ Vitality and exuberance, guided by a distinct sense of order, are the dominant notes of the Arts of the Exposition and pre-eminently of the sculpture. It proclaims with no uncertain voice that "all is right with this Western world" - it is not too much to claim that it supplies the humanized ideality for which the Exposition stands - the daring, boasting masterful spirits of enterprise and imagination - the frank enjoyment of physical beauty and effort - the fascination of danger; as well as the gentler, more reverent of our attitudes, to this mysterious problem that is Life. ”

“ It was proper, therefore, that our State, in its dignity, with its conservatism and with its intense patriotism, should be among the first to contribute of its means to make of this Exposition the grand success which it promises. With each succeeding international exposition the world becomes wiser, artisans more skillful, the contributions to science and art more valuable; in a word, they raise the standard of civilization and hasten the time when all men shall pay homage to the ruler of the universe. ”

“ The Architecture
It is generally conceded that the essential lesson of the Exposition is the lesson of art. However strongly the industrial element may have asserted itself in the many interesting exhibits, no matter how extensive the appeal of the applied sciences may be, the final and lasting effect will be found in the great and enduring lesson of beauty which the Exposition so unforgetably teaches. ”

“ It was fitting that such an achievement should be celebrated with an exposition of the arts, the resources, the productions, and the inventions of the civilised world. It was the vivid drama of international achievement. There were more than eighty thousand single exhibits, and groups of related exhibits, representing every phase of the highest efforts of man in contemporary progress. Industries and economics, inventions and discoveries, arts and sciences, education and ethics, met under the striking architectural beauty and in a scenic setting never before equalled in any land. ”

“ Twenty-five years ago, at the time that the best work was really being done in England, scarcely anything was being produced in America. It is true that some of the magazines had been started, and that some of the men, who are best known as illustrators to-day, were at work. But it was not until 1876, the year of the Centennial, the first international exhibition held in America, that American artists, engravers, printers, and publishers were enabled to form an idea of what was being done in Europe. ”

“ The exhibit of the Government at the Centennial Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1876 was admitted to be one of the most attractive features of that great national undertaking and a valuable addition to it. From men of intelligence and scientific attainments, at home and abroad, it received the highest encomiums, showing the interest it awakened among those whose lives are given to the improvement of the social and material condition of the people. ”

“ It is a far cry from the early oriental fairs in the East, which were perhaps the early ancestors of this great Exposition, and all honor and credit and glory is due the men who stood shoulder to shoulder in carrying this great enterprise to such a magnificent culmination. It represents American skill, American enterprise, American endeavor, and its influence will be felt upon this country long after those men who have played their successful part in this great moving drama have passed from earth. ”

“ All must have observed the effect of the Centennial Exhibition in educating even what are called educated people, and in the impetus derived therefrom. It gave to all a larger outlook, it repressed egotism, quickened sympathies, and set us to thinking. ”

“ The arrangement of the galleries should be mastered before one starts to study. In general there are three divisions of exhibits. At each end is a group of foreign sections, and the great middle space is given up to American art. ”

“ However that may be, the industrial competition to which, in the last analysis, the Exposition owes its inception, is pushing many aside from the beaten highways into hitherto unexplored regions of thought and endeavor, and who is to say that we may not in consequence find a direction quite at right angles to all of our wonted ways of thinking. Certainly there could be no more fitting occasion for the launching of a new thought-form than a great international exposition. ”

“ THE GREAT WORLD’S FAIR.—Being a Complete History of the Stupendous Exposition that will be Thrown Open in 1893, when the Peopled World Will be Called Upon to View the Progress of the Future Metropolis—How the Exposition will be Opened in the Fall of the Present Year—The Colossal Buildings and Their Contents—Hints for the Wayfarer to Follow in His Strolls About the City During Fair Time. ”

“ The scope of the exhibit is limited to painting, sculpture and print-making, except in the Oriental sections. In painting the primary aim has been to make a representative display of contemporary work. Most of the galleries contain only canvases painted within the last ten years. But in order to correct the common misconception that American art is entirely a thing of today, without historical background, a few rooms are given up to historic works of the various early American schools, and to works of the foreign schools that have influenced the development of American art. ”

“ These exhibits represent in concrete form the artistic and industrial development of this country, and in viewing them one cannot but be impressed with the great improvement in the conditions affecting our material and physical welfare and with the corresponding advancement in our intellectual and esthetic life. ”

“ The expositions held in our country have celebrated great epochs of our advancement, and they will be pointed out to future generations as evidences of the onward march of a people unparalleled in the history of the human race. ”

“ But there is no system in the arrangement of the twenty-eight general rooms of contemporary American work, In treating these the guide aims to suggest tendencies and influences, rather than to point out this or that canvas as a good or bad one. Nevertheless it is believed that every really important picture or artist is individually mentioned-so that one who has used the manual consistently may be sure of having enjoyed the cream of the collection, at the same time gaining the wider knowledge of the main currents of development. ”

“ The plastic and pictorial decoration of an Exposition offer unusual opportunity to the Artist, at the same time imposing handicaps - the briefness of time, the poverty of material. It affords chances for experiment, invention, and originality only limited by the necessary formal settings of the architecture, out of proportion to the initiative of the artists, a majority of whom prefer, either from inclination or necessity, to take the safe course, the beaten path of precedent. Artists are of two kinds - the Imitators and the Innovators. ”

“ The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry and Art of all Nations is, then, the first attempt to dignify and refine toil; and, by collecting the several products of scientific and æsthetic art from every quarter of the globe into one focus, to diffuse a high standard of excellence among our operatives, and thus to raise the artistic qualities of labour, so that men, no longer working with their fingers alone, shall find that which is now mere drudgery converted into a delight, their intellects expanded, their natures softened, and their pursuits ennobled by the process. ”

“ The beauties of the Art Gallery were a revelation to the busy, pushing American, and the man or woman who spent but a few days among the wonders of the great World's Fair of 1893 found food for reflection and pleasant memories to last a lifetime. ”

“ MADAME TUSSAUD AND SONS
Have the honor to announce that their entirely new Exhibition, which has only to be seen to ensure its support and patronage, justly entitling it to the appellation of the most popular Collection in the Empire, is NOW OPEN as above mentioned, and they trust the Public will not form their ideas of it from anything of a similar description they may have seen in this Metropolis or elsewhere—as in their peculiar art they stand alone; a fact acknowledged by those that have made the tour of Europe. ”

“ In this age of competition in every department of industry, and at a time when such extraordinary development is taking place in almost every system, whether it minister to our personal comfort or to our enjoyment, it will be useful and interesting to bear in mind the importance of small beginnings. With this view it is proposed, now that the Society of Arts has put forth a declaration of its intention to hold a second Great Exhibition in 1862, to point out a few historic facts in reference to past exhibitions. ”

“ Now is the time to prepare for a great Exhibition—an Exhibition worthy of the greatness of this country, not merely national in its scope and benefits, but comprehensive of the whole world; and I offer myself to the public as their leader, if they are willing to assist in the undertaking. ”

“ In the National Gallery one finds a throng of nursery-maids, and men just come from their work; true, they make a great deal of noise thronging to and fro on the uncarpeted floors in their thick boots, and noise from which, when penetrated by the atmosphere of Art, men in the thickest boots would know how to refrain; still I felt that the sight of such objects must be gradually doing them a great deal of good. The British Museum would, in itself, be an education for a man who should go there once a week, and think and read at his leisure moments about what he saw. ”

“ The Universal Exposition of 1904, when the date of opening rolls around one year from to-day, will, with its buildings completed, its exhibits installed, be thoroughly prepared to receive the millions of visitors who will enter its gates. The distinguished assemblage which honors us with its presence to-day can come nearer forming an adequate conception of the scope of the work by personal inspection than through the writings or illustrations of authors and designers, however great their talent may be. ”

“ The first exhibition was held in the New Gallery, in London, in the autumn of 1888. It is not necessary to dwell on the exhibits which stand enumerated in the catalogue now before me. It is sufficient to say that whereas each exhibit, standing alone, might have been seen without any sense of a new 'movement' being on foot, the accumulation, under one roof and idea, of so many different and differently conceived things of beauty, made a marked impression on the public imagination, & unmistakably heralded the advent of a new force into society, at once creative and classificatory. ”

“ The Great Exhibition was neither more nor less than an immense pack, spread out and shown off to the best advantage. I think Prince Albert must have borrowed the idea from me when he saw me with my pack, at Braemar, so that it may be said that I was the original, or primary cause of the Great Exhibition, which has been reproduced in America, France, and other parts—and yet neither medals were given me, nor honourable mention made of me in connection with it. Another proof to the world that neglect is generally the fate of Genius. ”

“ This little salon, entitled “L’Exposition des Impressionistes,” has become historic. The list of exhibitors included the following: Astruc, Attendu, Béliard, Boudin, Bracquemond, Brandon, Bureau, Cals, Cézanne, Gustave Colin, Debras, Degas, Guillaumin, Latouche, Lepic, Lépine, Levert, Meyer, de Molins, Monet, Berthe Morisot, Mulot-Durivage, de Nittis, Auguste Ottin, Léon Ottin, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouart, Robert, Sisley. From every point of view, except that of art, the exhibition was a failure. The press attacked it with exceptional virulence, the public kept 35away. ”

“ When The Fine Art Society’s Exhibition was first planned the intention was to confine it to samplers, which, in themselves, formed a class sufficiently large to occupy all the space which experience showed should be allotted to them in any display with which it was not desired to weary the visitor. ”

“ The reception given to it having so far justified our plea for the due recognition of the arts and crafts of design, and our belief in their fundamental importance—the amount of public interest and support accorded to the Exhibition having, in fact, far exceeded our anticipations, it was determined to hold a second on the same lines, and to endeavour to carry out, with more completeness than was at first found possible, those principles of work, ideas, and aims in art for which we contended, and to make the Exhibition a rallying point, as it were, for all sympathetic workers. ”

“ The great number of visitors constantly thronging the galleries is significant of the value the people put upon art. Excellent as the collection is as a school for artists, it was made for popular enjoyment and education. The best result to be looked for is its stimulation and culture of the public taste. The people are already in love with it, and what they love they make their own.
The exhibits are arranged in fifteen sections, consisting of national, sectional, or personal, collections of paintings, besides many important displays of miniatures, etchings, prints, drawings, and tapestries. ”