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1 of 253523 objects
Joseph Nash (1809-78)
The Great Exhibition: the transept dated 1851
Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour | 39.6 x 52.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 917819
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A watercolour showing a view of the Transept of the Great Exhibition from the south entrance, looking across to the baldacchino and fountain. Signed and dated at bottom right: Joseph Nash 1851.
This view is one of four watercolours by Joseph Nash which were published as lithographs while the exhibition was open; early proofs of the prints were put on display at the Great Exhibition itself by the end of July. In the distance can be seen the central baldachin, under which the opening ceremony was held. Nash’s watercolour gives a sense of the vast scale of the Crystal Palace, which was tall enough to incorporate trees already growing on the site.
In his capacity as President of the Society of Arts, Prince Albert set up a committee to organise exhibitions with the aim of improving British industrial design. An exhibition in Birmingham in 1849 was followed by the first truly international exhibition, the Great Exhibition of Products of Industry of All Nations, held in Joseph Paxton's 'Crystal Palace' in Hyde Park, London, in the summer of 1851. Six million people visited the exhibition to see over 100,000 exhibits from around the world, divided broadly into raw materials, machinery, manufactures and the fine arts; Queen Victoria herself visited no fewer than thirty-four times. The substantial profits were used to establish the South Kensington Museum, renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1899. The Queen wrote to her uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, that the inaugeration of the Great Exhibition was the "greatest day in our history."
Provenance
Painted for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
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Medium and techniques
Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour
Measurements
39.6 x 52.7 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
RL 17819Alternative title(s)
The Great Exhibition of 1851: the Transept
