The Great Exhibition "Wot is to Be", Probable Results of The Industry of All Nations in The Year '51, Showing What is to be Exhibited, Who is To Exhibit, in Short How Its All Going to Be Done
Medium
Wood engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 5 1/16 x 9 5/16 in. (12.8 x 23.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1963
Accession Number
63.698.6(21)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in anticipation of London's Great Exhibition of 1851—the world's first international showcase of industrial innovation housed in the iconic Crystal Palace—this wood engraving by George Augustus Sala captures the era's boundless optimism and hype. Titled *The Great Exhibition "Wot is to Be"*, it whimsically outlines "probable results" of global industry, satirizing who would exhibit, what marvels they might display, and the grand mechanics of it all. Attributed also to the fictional "Committee of the Society for Keeping Things in Their Places," the print pokes fun at the event's promote...
About the Artist
George Augustus Sala|Committee of the Society for Keeping Things in Their Places (British|British) · 1828 |1840 –1895 |1860
British, London 1828–1895 Hove|London