1013 



EXHIBITIONS, INTERNATIONAL. 



EXHIBITIONS, INTERNATIONAL. 



1016 



localities. The main building was of stone, brick, and glass, much 

 more costly than the Hyde Park building, and intended to be more 

 permanent ; it wag, however, only 800 feet long by 350 wide. Although 

 the block of buildings was pierced by 400 windows, it was not so well 

 suited as the glass palace in Hyde Park for the display of goods. When 

 it was clearly seen that this building would be too small, two others 

 were hastily erected ; one, for machinery, was a gallery of immense 

 length running along the north bank of the Seine ; and the other, for 

 a picture gallery, or Palais des Beaux Arts, was a wooden building in 

 the Allt ! e des Veuves. Altogether, the various buildings, together 

 with the other expenses connected with the undertaking, involved the 

 very large outlay of one million sterling ; but Mr. Cole, one of the 

 British commissioners, was informed, on good authority, that this sum 

 was more than equalled by the extra expenditure of foreigners in 

 Paris during those months. 



Owing partly to the substantial nature of the main building, and 

 partly to difficulties between the government and the owners of the 

 Palais de 1' Industrie, the exhibition was not open till the 15th of Hay ; 

 it was closed on the 15th of November. The total number of visits 

 paid was 4,533,464 (the Hyde Park number was about one-third more). 

 About 40,000 British subjects were among the visitors. Unlike its 

 English predecessor, the exhibition was open on Sundays as well as 

 week days; Sunday was, indeed, the "peoples' day," on which the 

 charge for admission was only 20 centimes (Urf.) ; Friday was a special 

 day, on which the charge varied from 2 to 5 francs (Is. Sd. to 4s.), at 

 different times during the autumn ; on the other five days of the week 

 te charge was uniformly 1 franc (lOrf.). On one particular Sunday 

 (May 27th) the exhibition was thrown open gratuitously. There was 

 only one kind of season ticket, charged at 50 francs (2J.). Two 

 sections of the exhibition, the Palais de 1'Industrie and the Palais 

 des Beaux Arts were distinct, and subject to separate charges for 

 admission ; the visitors to the former were four times as numerous as 

 those to the latter. 



The articles were classified nearly in the same way as in London, 

 there being in each case 30 classes altogether. To apportion medals to 

 deserving exhibitors was the difficult labour of nearly 400 jurors, of 

 whom about half were named by the French government, and the 

 other half by foreign governments. The foreign jurors found this 

 work to be a great tax on their time, seeing that they were thus 

 engaged during the greater part of three summer months. There were 

 four classes of medals distributed, and one grade of " honourable 

 mention." 



In relation to the British portion of this exhibition, it may be stated 

 that the government placed the sum of 50,000/. at the disposal of the 

 Board of Trade, to assist in defraying the expenses incurred by the 

 exhibitors, and in preparing reports on the results of the exhibition. 

 These reports have since been published by the government at a very 

 cheap rate : they are about 30 in number, and were drawn up by some 

 of the English jurors who had taken an active part in the onerous 

 labour of examining the articles exhibited. The three portable volumes 

 containing the reports constitute a valuable addition to the literature 

 of the industrial arts. 



Zoilterein Exhibition at Munich. The example set in 1851 has led 

 to the organisation of many other industrial displays in the United 

 Kingdom and on the Continent. We may name, as a few of these, a 

 New Brunswick Exhibition in 1853 ; a Madras Exhibition of native 

 industry in the same year ; an Exhibition of German Industry at 

 Munich in 1854 ; and an Art Exhibition at Edinburgh in 1857. From 

 among these, it must suffice to give a few figures concerning the Munich 

 Exhibition. An iron and glass building was constructed at a cost of 

 90.000/. It was 800 feet by 280, 87 feet high, and had 250,000 square 

 feet of flooring. There were 6800 exhibitors, belonging to 33 Zollve- 

 rein states, and the goods they sent, distributed into 1 2 classes (instead 

 of 30 as in England and France), were roughly valued at 1,500,00<M. 

 The exhibition was open from the 15th of July to the 15th of October, 

 at an admission fee varying from 44d. to Is., English. The undertaking 

 would probably have entailed a loss under any circumstances ; but a 

 visitation of cholera, in the last months of the autumn, so thinned the 

 number of visitors, that the Bavarian government lost 200,0002. by the 

 exhibition. 



Manchester Art-Treasures Exhibition. Although not exactly an 

 international exhibiton, the Manchester Exhibition was so compre- 

 hensive hi character, and so exceptional in its leading features, that it 

 Li fully entitled to a place here. 



The Manchester Exhibition was the child of the French Exposition 

 Universelle of 1855, as that was of the Great Exhibition of 1851 : it 

 differed from both in being an exhibition solely of artistic objects sent 

 l>y their possessors, and not by producers or by dealers. The project 

 was inaugurated at a meeting of Manchester gentlemen on the 26th 

 day of March, 1856. The scheme was favourably received ; an ampin 

 guarantee fund readily provided ; the Queen and the Prince Consort 

 gave their hearty support to the undertaking ; and with few exceptions 

 and these in some cases forced ones, the effect of entails, &c. the 

 owner* of works of art responded cheerfully and freely to the appeal. 

 A building was erected at Old Trafford, about two miles from the 

 centre of the city, and readily accessible by railway as well as omnibus, 

 from a design by Mr. Salomons, in conjunction with Messrs. Y..nm: 

 and Co., of Edinburgh, the contractor. The exhibition was formally 



opened by the Prince Consort on the Sth of May, 1857, and remained 

 O(K']| till the 17th of October. 



In its general plan the building was a parallelogram of C60 feet by 

 200 feet, with low projecting towers and attached corridors at the cast 

 or entrance end, and refreshment-rooms and offices built out from the 

 sides. With the exception of the entrance in >nt, which was of brick, 

 the exterior of the building was constructed entirely of corrn 

 sheet-iron, affixed to a cast-iron framework ; the interior being lined 

 with wood. The entire structure covered an area of about 130,000 

 square feet, and cost somewhat over 30,000i. The interior consisted 

 of a central hall and two side aisles, with transepts near the western 

 end ; at the western end a gallery extended round the transepts, and 

 across the end of the building, and at the eastern end one was curried 

 across the front. The central hall, which was 632 feet long and 104 

 feet wide, was divided into three sections by a series of slender coupled 

 columns. The roof consisted of a semicircular span of 56 feet, spun:;- 

 ing from the columns, with hipped side spans 24 feet across. The side 

 aisles, or picture galleries, were 432 feet long and 40 feet wide, and 

 were spanned by a semicircular roof 50 feet high to the crown of the 

 arch. A water-colour gallery at the western end of the building was 

 200 feet long by 24 feet wide. 



The walls of the central hall were covered with portraits of cele- 

 brated English personages. Below these were cases filled with various 

 articles of ornamental art, while along the body of the hall were ranges 

 of upright cases containing larger, rarer, and more costly specimens of 

 a similar kind. The general collection of modern sculpture was also 

 arranged in a double series the entire length of the central hall. The 

 Meyrick collection of armour, with choice examples from other 

 repositories, and the entire Soulages collection of antique furniture, &c., 

 occupied spaces near the western end of the hall. The South Aisle 

 was devoted to Paintings by the Ancient Masters, the north to 

 pictures by English painters. A room beyond the transept on the 

 south side was occupied by the noble contribution of the Marquis of 

 Hertford, and a miscellaneous collection of cabinet-paintings of the 

 Dutch and Flemish schools. A corresponding saloon on the north side 

 contained the Oriental Museum. Beyond these, extending across the 

 western extremity of the building, was a long room which, with 

 two smaller rooms, was entirely occupied by water-colour pictures. 

 The western gallery was filled to overflowing with the collection of 

 miniatures, drawings by ancient masters, engravings, etchings, wood- 

 cuts, lithographs, photographs, and architectural drawings. Pictures, 

 mostly by modern masters of foreign schools, occupied the space 

 afforded by the eastern gallery ; and finally, along as much as was 

 available of the wall of the corridor stretching towards the railway 

 station, were hung paintings by the old masters, for which room could 

 not be found in the south aisle. 



The number of paintings of all kinds by ancient masters was 1115, 

 by modern masters 689. Of British portraits there were 388 ; of 

 miniatures and enamels there were 59 cases, but several of the cases 

 contained numerous examples. The water-colour drawings numbered 

 969. Of modern sculpture there were 160 specimens, all being in 

 marble except about a dozen which were in bronze. The original 

 sketches and drawings by the old masters numbered 260 ; the engravings 

 in line 937 ; in mezzotinto 161 ; the etchings 246 ; besides which 

 there was a considerable number of woodcuts, and 'plain, tinted, and 

 chromo-lithographs, and about 600 photographs. Finally, the museum 

 of ornamental art comprised no fewer than 17,000 articles some whose 

 value was to be reckoned at hundreds of pounds each, others of mar- 

 vellous beauty though of inferior pecuniary value, and others again 

 whose only value lay in their rarity. 



The paintings by the old masters, which formed the principal 

 feature of the exhibition, were arranged as far as practicable in chrono- 

 logical order : the Italian pictures occupying the south wall, those of 

 Germany and the Netherlands the north wall ; the Spanish pictures 

 being placed in the vestibules. For completeness and value such a 

 collection was probably never before brought together, comprising as 

 it did characteristic examples of almost every school, and extending 

 over the entire range of the art from its dawn in the 13th to its 

 decline in the 17th century. Of English paintings the collection, if 

 less important was no less instructive. It was indeed the only attempt 

 that had been made to exhibit a collection of English pictures which 

 should suffice to give a tolerably complete view of the rise, progress, 

 and present state of painting in England. And what was done in the 

 south aisle for English oil painting was in the western rooms 

 accomplished for English painting in water colours ; the series showing 

 in fact the whole history of the art by means of first-class ex;u 

 Of the British portrait gallery we have already spoken. 



The collection of original drawings and sketches by the old m 

 contained 260 choice specimens by some of the chief artists of all 

 countries; while of the collection of engravings it is enough to state, 

 in the words of the catalogue, that " This was the first time in the 

 history of the art of engraving at which an attempt was made to show 

 the public generally, at one view, a complete chronological series of 

 prints from the commencement of the art up to the present time," 

 some of the examples being among the choicest of the most highly- 

 prized prints of the greatest engravers of every country. 



The Museum of Ornamental art the most comprehensive and 

 richest collection of the kind that probably was ever brought together, 



