Facing the foreign pavilions would have been facades from different periods of French architecture: Charlemagne, Henry II, Henry IV, Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. But the greatest feat of engineering at the 1878 exposition universelle was the virtuoso control of water. The Wizard of Menlo Park had changed forever the very complexion of the night! And it was Gustave Eiffel himself who designed the internal metal supports for Bartholdi's Liberty. "We did," replied the host," before we were civilized." In spite of its pretensions to grandeur, the building seemed cursed even before its completion. Jean-Baptiste-Sebastien Kranz had designed the oval Palace of Industry in 1867. The exposition committee, though, had full confidence that the combined talents of French industrialists and artists, financiers and workmen, could make the event a triumph in spite of opposition. (Report, II, p. 121). The stark iron beams of the Palace of Industry were painted blue, and decorated with red and yellow lines. The 1878 exposition universelle was a proclamation, to the nation and the world, that France was ready once again to assume her traditional role as a great civilizing force in human culture. Did the 1867 exposition commissioners offer space for international cuisine and an outside park for housing the large exhibits that could not be included in the main building? By incorporating these meetings into the official agenda of the exposition itself, the Commissioners were consciously attempting to offset the charges of frivolousness that had been leveled at the 1867 Exposition. While the President and his party strode forward majestically, workers unrolled a rich red carpet all the way to the exposition grounds. manufacturing in Britain. Résultat du concours," Encyclopédie d'architecture, ser. Paris capitulated on January 28, 1871, after a long and bitter siege, and on May 10 the Treaty of Frankfurt brought the war officially to a close. The sculptor himself, far from being offended by the incident, referred to the scandal as "the highest compliment ever paid to my work. Aux Ambassadeurs LACMA M.84.31.465.jpg 2,100 × 1,595; 1.54 MB. French soldiers had aided the cause of American independence; and the Founding Fathers openly modeled much of their constitutional thinking on the works of the great French thinkers of the Enlightenment. Jean-Leon Gérôme, one of the grand prize winners in 1867, exhibited some of his new mixed media sculptures at the exposition. Splendid achievement — but not without its flaws. Here, on home ground and in the service of the new Republic, the talent of French art and science would once again dazzle the world. In any event this construction, fabricated out of wood, has no pretensions of solidity or monumental durability. The edifice of its past glory, constructed with many pains, crumbles away before the attacks of iconoclastic demagogues,before the efforts of the black band of materialists.4. Rapports du Jury Internationale (Paris, 1880). "3 Throughout the journals and official reports of 1878, there runs a common theme: whatever the Empire did, the Republic can do better. One writer at the Exposition recalled a similar circumstance when a group of French officers had been feasted by the Chinese: "I can't tell what I'm eating, with all the bones taken out," remarked a French officer at the table. 9. He helped create the landscaping of the Bois de Boulogne and the Parc Monceaux. The passage of time did not improve public opinion of this unhappy edifice. But none of the spirited and patriotic canvasses of Alphonse de Neuville, Edouard Detaille, or several other young painters, was admitted to the Exposition salon. France was not yet willing to forgive or forget the Franco-Prussian War. Fairgoers were astonished to hear how sound could be amplified with Edison's device. Congrès internationale des architects, tenu à Paris, du 29 juillet au 3 aout 1878 (Paris 1881). The three inventions associated with Edison — the phonograph, the electric light and, to a lesser extent, the telephone, all fulfilled what most fairgoers wanted from technology: sweeping, dramatic, and immediately useful improvements to their daily life. Lamarre, C., and A. Frout de Fontpertius. Sloping down from the Trocadero Palace to the Seine was the Parc. France, at that time, was the home of a number of talented painters of battle scenes. Some of the waters then flowed over the top of a pond that was elevated and supported by three arches in front of the Trocadero Palace, plunged down 29 feet into a fountain, then glided over terraced steps into a large basin. I) : The Engineer... Grace's Guide British Industrial History . Jouin, M.H. Crossing the Pont d'Iena from the Trocadero Park, the fairgoer confronted Léopold-Amédé Hardy's impressive facade (constructed by Gustave Eiffel) of the main exposition building. After all, the designer of the 1855 Exposition Palace of Industry made it a point of honor to build a taller and more spacious building than the Crystal Palace; and the 1878 Exposition had on virtually every score compared itself — favorably, in most cases — to the Empire exposition of 1867. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. Was it not a painful insult to exclude that graphic and youthful school, so popular and so French, which had found a way to extract a kind of victory out of defeat?20. Adrien de Valette, an able writer and defender of the prerogatives of the Church, excoriated the 1878 fair as "The Exposition without God." Edouard Detaille, "Sale of the Hostages " -- French officials bargaining with Prussian officers for the return of wounded soldiers, 1878. In 1878, there was no special category for inexpensive goods. Another pipe carried water more swiftly beneath the earth, then launched towering, 62-foot high jets that flanked the central fountain like liquid pillars. 94, 112, 129. Just as America had shown in 1876 that it was once again a nation healed and whole, a country that had overcome the tragedy of civil war and emerged stronger than ever, so France proclaimed her recovery from the twofold disaster of military defeat and civil dissension. Multicolored banners streamed from the windows all over the city. II, page 156, 15 Raymond Isay, Panorama des Expositions Universelles; Paris: Gallimard; pages 150-151, 16 Illustrated Paris Universal Exposition, Sept. 14, 1878, page 218, 17 L'Exposition Universelle de Paris, Journal Hebdomadaire, Number 3, pages 23-24, 18 Illustrated Paris Universal Exposition, October 5, page 263, In addition, as Daniel Boorstin writes in his The Americans: The Democratic Experience: "The general counsel to Western Union was so impressed by the brilliant electric arc lighting at the Paris Exposition of 1878 that when he returned to the United States, he persuaded Edison to explore its commercial possibilities.". We went to a great international reception in our shirt-sleeves." Stillman, W.J. It is not even a scaffolding. "There is a clear analogy," said the official report of the congresses, "between the work of the congresses and that of international expositions themselves: in the latter, people exchange products; in the former, people exchange ideas. Falke, H.J. Even when the exterior was finished and the internal exhibits mounted, the opening day of the music festival had to be delayed because the grande salle des fêtes was still not finished in June. Across the terrace from these works are six statues from the 1878 exposition representing Europe, Asia, Africa, the Orient, North America and South America. Scenes from other French military engagements — even Waterloo — were allowed. I, page 235, 3 The Illustrated Paris Universal Exposition, May 21, 1878, page 26, 4 quoted in The Illustrated Paris Universal Exposition, June 29th, 1878, page 87, 5 For a full account of this misadventure, see The Chefs-d'Oeuvre d'Art of the International Exposition, 1878, edited by Edward Strahan (Philadelphia: George Barrie, n.d.). "Exposition universelle de Paris en 1878; concours ouvert pour l'édification des batiments destinés à l'Exposition. — "Heroism in Defeat: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878," ibid., Volume VI, Number 4, p. 9. As the heavens lightened over Paris, throngs of people cheered the President, the exposition commissioners, France, and themselves. These statues signified more than complimentary bows towards sister nations: they were explicit statements of esteem by the French government. Gloria Victis ("Glory to the Vanquished") might serve as the theme sculpture of the entire exposition. Edison himself had wide ambitions for his brainchild: Here, you see, is a book for the ignorant, who have never learned to read. On opening day, May 1, 1878, dark clouds gathered over Paris. . Bergerat, É. Les Chefs-oeuvre d'art à l'Exposition Universelle, 1878 (Paris, 1878). 24 The elephant, horse, and rhinoceros can be seen today outside the main entrance to the Orsay Museum. Rhino from the 1878 Exposition, now in front of the Orsay Museum, The author and the Rhino, some time in the 1980s, Quotations from the Works of Samuel Johnson, Presentations for Biography of a City: San Francisco, Signature Buildings of San Francisco Backstory, Click here for a larger view of the Russian pavilion. President Macmahon made a stirring speech; and just as he declared France's third exposition universelle officially open, the rain ceased. L'album de l'Exposition: Vues intérieures et extérieures de Palais de l'Exposition (Paris, 1878). . Art must be moral; but it should take its lessons from classical sources, not from the oppressive reality of contemporary life. Artisan Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878 (London, 1879). Also on display was a telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell and improved by Edison. And in the American section, visitors could marvel at a staggering array of personal appliances. Strahan, Edward, editor. From the basin, the water flowed down again through the iron and lead pipes, surged beneath the Seine, then emerged quietly in peaceful ponds in the Champs de Mars. Though he was not the principal inventor of the telephone, Edison's improvements so dramatically enhanced the performance of this revolutionary new communications device that one commentator termed the display "a glorious triumph for Edison." "Yes," replied his host,"we do our butchering in the back room.". Exposition commissioners were understandably anxious to avoid an embarrassing incident that might arise from showing pictures in which French and German soldiers were shooting each other. But the urge to shine more brilliantly could not be denied to any artist or nation, especially in the peaceful arena of international expositions, and most especially to a reborn French nation. Glucq. An American watchmaking assembly line demonstrated the virtues of standardized parts in mass production. The dimensions of the Trocadero were conceived in such a way as to make it evident that modern technology could surpass the venerable monuments of traditional architecture, and that French builders could once again outdo the English. with him, a new ideal of civilization comes to the people; an ideal on which the three most powerful myths -- mystiques! Report of the United States Commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposition, 1878 (Washington, D.C., 1880). text of this web site is available under the Creative But the hosts of this great reception found the American barbarity of taste redeemed by vigor of invention. At the 1878 exposition, though, it was not painting, but sculpture that most forcibly captured the public's attention. As we shall see, proponents of the Eiffel Tower were even more aggressive in banishing the voice of religion from the realm of Progress. . Society of Arts. Held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. "The time had come," wrote Alfred Picard, "for France to lift the veil of sorrow and mourning, and to invite the world to a public festival."2. There were dissenting voices, however. Prince Napoleon had warned, in his final report on the 1855 exposition universelle, that future expositions should beware of attempting to outshine their predecessors. "The advocates of monarchy have always been boasting of the fetes of the Royalty and the Empire," wrote the staunch republican Francisque Sarrey. 2, V (1876), p. 65. Four gigantic hydraulic pumps fed the waters of the Seine through 23 miles of cast iron and lead pipe to all corners of the exposition. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/index.php?title=1878_Paris_Exhibition&oldid=1093505, Creative Members of the clergy also objected strongly to the exclusion of religious ceremonies from the exposition. Adolphe Bouguereau's exquisitely rendered religious and mythological scenes and Alexandre Cabanel's "Death of Francesco da Rimini" were the rage of the day. "Lettres de Paris: l'Ecole française de peinture à l'Exposition de 1878," Le Messager de l'Europe, July, 1878. "Art Industry in the Paris Exposition of 1878," Penn Monthly, X, p. 50. . Trocadero Concert Hall (click the image for a larger view). The "bigger is better" — or, more accurately, "bigger is more magnificent" — philosophy permeates all phases of the exhibits and the exposition itself. 12 The Illustrated Paris Universal Exposition, August 24, pages 185-186, 13 Report of the United States Commisssioners to the Paris Universal Exposition, 1878 (Washington, D.C., 1880), Vol. — "Fine Arts at the Paris Exposition: American Painting," Nation, XXVII, p. 331. — "Special Exhibition of the City of Paris," ibid., p. 253. A railway station, a bathhouse, a police precinct? "Fine Arts at the Paris Exposition of 1878: American Painting," Nation, XXVII, p. 210. In the central courtyard of the Palace of Industry, each participating nation was invited to build an entranceway to its exhibits. Other events of 1879 History of France • Timeline • Years: Events from the year 1879 in France. Word had gotten back to the provinces that people were coming from all over the world to worship a golden calf in Paris! 174, 222. ", (Click here for a larger view of the Russian pavilion), Impressive as it was, the Rue des Nations would have been even more striking had the exposition commissioners been able to carry out their original plans to build a Street of France across the courtyard from the Street of Nations. It is an announcement that a republic can survive and thrive — heroically, on a superlative level — in a world encrusted with despotism. It will be used by actors to learn the right reading of passages. The Goupil Gallery in the Rue Chaptal offered the young artists exhibition space. Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, and of the Exposition universelle, Paris, 1878 (New York, 1879). For most art historians today, the 1870s are known as the Impressionist Years, when the practitioners of the new style exhibited their works in defiance of reactionary academic tradition. In other halls of the Trocadero Palace, members of the international conferences discussed a wide range of topics. Typical was the American dominance in the sewing machine business. Incumbents. Are they less worthy than the others? It will be used to make toys talk. As President Marshall Macmahon's cortège assembled for their festive march to the Exposition grounds, thunder rumbled and the rains rushed down. In 1877, Edison showed his machine to British audiences, where they heard "God Save the Queen" sing forth from the strange device. 10 This idea was brought to life in part at the 1900 exposition universelle, in the Vieux Paris section designed by the fantasy artist and writer Robida. His touch with plants and water was deft and sure. McCormick, R.C. "The organizers of the 1878 Exposition," wrote Edward Strahan,"seemed to these ambitious young painters to be pushing French politeness to the limits of the incredible when they invited the military artists to withdraw from the competition to which the rest of Europe was bidden."19. . 13, The American Fine Arts Commissioner, William W. Storey, sadly concurred. Now religion itself was banished — banished, at least, as an institution whose official blessings and sanction were an important part of the ideology of the expositions themselves. The wide sweep of the two flanking colonnades was impressive enough; but the Trocadero palace itself looked squat and proportionless. First the water surged up to the summit of Trocadero Hill and into the Palace towers, where it powered elevators so swift that speedometers were mounted on the walls to show astonished passengers the velocity of their ascent and descent.