A watercolour showing the Exhibition building, with the royal carriages drawn up in front of the entrance. The Mounted Band of the 11th Hussars is visible in the left foreground.

The Dublin Exhibition of Irish Industry was organised by the railway entrepreneur William Dargan, and took place in a specially-designed ‘Temple of Industry’. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who loaned a number of works of art to the exhibition, visited in August 1853; Victoria expressed her admiration for the building and displays. Hayes was a Dublin-born artist who specialised in military scenes.

Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010

This watercolour was originally mounted in View Album VI. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert compiled nine View Albums during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes both in a different arrangement and with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.