Great Exhibition

“ 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. ”

“ Our firm has arrived at the dignity of exhibition at the great exhibition, where we have already sent some stained glass, and shall shortly send some furniture which will doubtless cause the majority of spectators to admire. The getting ready of our things first has cost more tribulation and swearing to Topsy than three exhibitions will be worth. ”

“ Nevertheless, without any wish to indulge in that mock humility which seeks to disparage our own productions, when, if there be an innate propensity, it is to value our own work immeasurably beyond its true worth, we must confess that the one craft appears no more worthy of respect than the other; so, we say again, the Great Exhibition, where all these matters are forced upon the mind, rightly considered, is a huge academy for teaching men the true dignity of even what are thought the inferior grades of labour. ”

“ The Great Exhibition is intended to receive and exhibit the most beautiful and most ingenious things from every country in the world, in order that everybody may become better known to each other than they have been, and be joined together in love and trade, like one great family ”

“ The only exhibition that ever made, or ever will make, any impression upon my imagination was the first of the series, the parent of them all, and now a thing of old times-the Great Exhibition of 1851, in Hyde Park, London. None of the younger generation can realize the sense of novelty it produced in us who were then in our prime. A noun substantive went so far as to become an adjective in honour of the occasion. ”

“ Then to stand in the centre of the huge crystal pile, and cast the eye thence in any direction, was indeed to behold a sight that had no parallel in excellence. The exquisite lightness and tone of colour that pervaded the entire structure was a visual feast, and a rare delight of air, colour, and space. ”

“ Those who are now to be found there, however, have come to look at the Exhibition, and not to make an exhibition of themselves. There is no air of display about them—no social falsity—all is the plain unvarnished truth. ”

“ July 26th.—Day before yesterday we went to the Arts' Exhibition, of which I do not think that I have a great deal to say. The edifice, being built more for convenience than show, appears better in the interior than from without,—long vaulted vistas, lighted from above, extending far away, all hung with pictures; and, on the floor below, statues, knights in armor, cabinets, vases, and all manner of curious and beautiful things, in a regular arrangement. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It will be evident from what has been already stated that a more important contribution to a commercial country than the 'Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition' could scarcely have been offered.... All possible means have been taken to render it worthy of the wonderful gathering of which it is the permanent record."—Athenæum. ”

“ It puts the public in full possession of every iota of intelligence in connexion with the Great Exhibition worth having, and has some very sensible remarks on the prospects of home exhibitors, especially at the forthcoming display. It is indispensable to all interested in the subject."
GUARDIAN.
"'A Popular Narrative of the Great Exhibition' was really needed, explaining its whole history from its first conception in the Prince Consort's brain, and Mr. Berlyn's book has amply supplied the need. It is a very smart volume, and the writer is duly impressed with the grandeur of his theme." ”

“ The spectacle was so new that it made a considerable impression upon the public, and the favourable reception these works experienced impressed the artists with an idea of forming a public exhibition, which scheme was carried into full effect with the help of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, who lent their great room for the purpose. ”

“ THE EXHIBITION—PARTY CONFLICT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS—LORD BROUGHAM AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.
THE Great Exhibition is beginning to attract a world of strangers in London; the increase of life and bustle everywhere is very noticeable. Foreign faces and strange costumes meet you in every street and at every assembly; cabs are in general commotion; the inland railway lines converging on town are alive with excursionists ”

“ But the discoverer, who works without any regard to Exhibitions, annihilates the old way by introducing a substitute—a something quite new, and infinitely superior. If there had been such an Exhibition a generation or two earlier, we might have owed to it a great improvement in the construction of street lamps—in the size and form of the wick, the application of the oil, and the construction of the glass case. ”

“ There is a great deal of freedom in the Exhibition. The servant who walks behind his mistress through the Park feels that he can crowd against her in the Exhibition. The Queen and the day labourer, the Prince and the merchant, the peer and the pauper, the Celt and the Saxon, the Greek and the Frank, the Hebrew and the Russ, all meet here upon terms of perfect equality. ”

“ At the time we write of, M. Adolphe was busily engaged upon an elaborate allegory, commemorative of the cosmopolitan character of the Great Exhibition.
In this great work of high art, Britannia, who is attended by the four quarters of the globe, has thrown one of her boxing-gloves to the ground, in token that she invites all nations to a friendly trial of skill ”

“ As yet, the art-exhibitions of this country have been confined solely to the handiworks of artists-proper. We have been led to suppose, by the restricted sense which we have given to the term artist, that Art was confined solely to the several forms of pleasing—pictorially, musically, or literarily. ”

“ This is how we treat Art in this Country, and with Paintings prefented to the Nation buried in a Vault, but sorry Encouragement is given to Genius; and no Wonder that Artists do Pictures for Furniture to sell to the great and small Vulgar, and so produce the Kind of Works that make up the greater Part of the Exhibition. ”

“ We forget often that if that exhibition has any important place in the art history of Great Britain, it does but prove that much preliminary work had been already accomplished. You cannot exhibit what does not exist ”

“ Suppose, for example, that an art gallery is devoted to an exhibition illustrative of some great historical subject, like the career of Napoleon I. The value of the pictorial side of the subject at once stands forth with great prominence, and one can realize the educational value of art in the exposition of history. ”

“ Here, as in the Exhibition at Manchester, are to be found evidences of the fact that the successful prosecution of trade, manufacture, and commerce afford not only the means of gratifying, but of developing the taste for art.
"Not the least interesting of all is the section in which an honourable place has been given to the works of artisan exhibitors. In every industrial community, and nowhere more so than in Glasgow, the development of the taste, skill, and handicraft of its operatives must always command a respectful consideration and interest. ”

“ The Flattering Success with which this Exhibition continues to be honored, (the Promenade being Crowded every Evening) , the very general desire expressed by Thousands for it to remain some time longer, (its merits becoming more generally known) , being acknowledged to be the most Splendid, and, at the same time, the most Instructive to Youth, (induces the Proprietors to obey the general wish.) It will remain in consequence till further Notice.
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The Exhibition is, therefore, located in “The Great Assembly Room of the late Royal London Bazaar, Gray’s Inn Road.” ”

“ Those who had been at all the Great Exhibitions said that it far surpassed those of London and Paris. All the luxurious fabrics of the East, and all the most delicate and the most costly products of the West, the fruit of manifold inventions and discoveries—with all that had been achieved in the useful arts, the arts whose success constitutes civilization—were there spread before the dazzled eye. ”

“ The placard goes on to describe the Exhibition as follows:
The Exhibition consists of a great variety of Public Characters, modelled with the greatest care, and regardless of expense, among whom will be noticed the original figures of BURKE and HARE (taken from their faces, to obtain which the Proprietors went expressly to Scotland) ; which have excited intense interest from the peculiar nature of their crimes, and their approach to life, which renders it difficult to recognize them from living persons. ”

“ What an opportunity for the student and the artist, what a source of amusement and entertainment, what a privilege, in these old countries, is the free admission to these costly and well-stocked galleries of art—here, where we may see hundreds of celebrated pictures and statues, any two of which would "pay handsomely," placed on exhibition in one of our great American cities; here, where there are sev [263] en miles of pictures, and their catalogue makes a thick book of over seven hundred pages ”

“ Nor is it possible to overlook the special appropriateness of such an Exhibition in this city, in which the researches and discoveries of Black, of Watt, and, in our own day, of Thomson, have been productive of world-wide benefits to mankind. ”

“ I thank you, also, for the allusion you made to me as a brother of the 'brush.' Although, as I observed before, I will do my utmost to support art, still I am afraid I shall never be able to compete with you as a painter, but at the same time I shall always be ready to enter the lists with you in the hunting field as long as you do not attempt to ride over me at the first fence. With respect to the present Exhibition, it may, I think, be said that the pictures in a great measure not only show the progress of art, but record the times in which we live. ”

“ It is always a great pleasure for me to meet you here at this annual gathering, to see so many distinguished and celebrated persons, and to be surrounded on all sides by the pictures of the most celebrated artists of our own country, and also, by the permission of the Academicians, by the pictures of the most distinguished foreign artists. I feel sure that the artists of this country take it as a great compliment that these pictures should be sent here for exhibition. ”

“ The jewels and the tapestry, and the Lyons silks, are not now the sole objects of attraction. The shilling folk may be an “inferior” class of visitors, but at least they know something about the works of industry, and what they do not know, they have come to learn. ”

“ With respect to the present Exhibition, it must strike all of us on looking around these walls that some pictures are wanting—pictures from an artist [Pg 362] whose health, I fear, is failing, although I am sure we all hope most heartily he may yet be spared to us; still we do miss the pictures of Sir Edwin Landseer. Gratifying as it must be for distinguished artists to see their pictures exhibited, and to hear the remarks made on them by critics and others, there are two beautiful drawings in this Exhibition of which, alas! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Between 1851 and 1862, some vast additions have been made to the machinery of our civilisation,—any one of which fills a larger space in our minds and our lives than any practical result of the Exhibition. ”

“ If the visitor is amazed at the fine collection of sculpture and statuary, what are his feelings at beholding the grand and almost endless halls of paintings as he ascends to the floors above! Here, grand galleries, spacious and well lighted, stretch out seemingly as far as the eye can reach, while halls and ante-rooms, here and there passages, and vestibules, and rooms, are crammed with the very wealth of art; here the chefs d'œuvre of the great artists of Europe, known all over the world by copies and engravings, are collected ”

“ But somewhere in the early eighties arose certain bold, bad men who—not satisfied with an annual picture-show of some two thousand works or so, always fresh—desired to see a national exhibition of art which should comprise not only paintings, sculpture, and architectural water-colours, but some representation of the arts and handicrafts of design. ”

“ 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. ”