The Great Exhibition of All Nations, 1851

Date

1851 (painted)

Artist/maker

Wallis, George (FSA), born 1811 - died 1891 (painter (artist))

Materials and Techniques

Oil on canvas

Marks and inscriptions

'G/Wallis/1851'

Dimensions

Height: 18.7 cm approx., Width: 61 cm approx., Height: 32.5 cm frame dimensions, Width: 74 cm frame dimensions

Object history note

Given by the Misses Kate and Rosa Wallis, the artist's daughters, 1903

Descriptive line

Oil painting, 'The Great Exhibition of All Nations, 1851', George Wallis, 1851

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 291
The following is the full text of the entry:

Born Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, 8 June 1811, trained as a coach and heraldic painter before practising as an artist in Manchester 1832-7. Entered Government School of Design 1841; headmaster of Schools of Art at Spitalfields 1843, Manchester 1844 and Birmingham 1851. Organised first exhibition in England of art manufactures at Royal Institution, Manchester, and gave first course of lectures on principles of decorative art 1845. Worked on Great Exhibition 1851 and International Exhibition 1862. Visited USA 1853. Appointed to South Kensington Museum 1858, Keeper of Art 1863, retiring a month before he died; promoted the circulation of works of art from South Kensington to provincial museums. Contributed to the Art Journal, lectured extensively, and published several books, from On the Cultivation of a Popular Taste in the Fine Arts (1839) to British Art, Pictorial, Decorative, and Industrial: a Fifty Years' Retrospect (1882). Elected FSA 1878. The catalogue of the 1919 exhibition of his paintings states that he exhibited at the RA and BI; he may be the G Wallis whose only exhibit was a 'View of Cardigan Bay' at the RA in 1872 (several Welsh scenes were in the 1919 show). Died Wimbledon, London, 24 October 1891; his daughter Rosa was a flower and watercolour painter, his sons George H and Sir Whitworth Wallis were directors of the Bethnal Green Museum and then (respectively) the Nottingham and Birmingham Museums. His studio sale was at Christie's 22 February 1892. His portrait by Alphonse Legros is in the V&A collections (896-1892), as is an etched self-portrait (E5750-1906).
LIT: Art Journal 1891, p384 (obit with portrait); Magazine of Art XV, December 1891, p69 (obit with portrait); Catalogue of Works by the late George Wallis ... exhibition catalogue with biographical introduction, Municipal Art Gallery and Museum, Wolverhampton, 1919

The Great Exhibition of all Nations, 1851
1453-1903 Neg GA1202
Canvas, 18.7 X 61 cm (7 ? X 24 ins)
Signed and dated 'G/Wallis/1851, br
Given by the Misses Kate and Rosa Wall is (the artist's daughters) 1903
Wallis was a Superintendent of the Great Exhibition (in charge of class B, woven textiles), and deputy commissioner of juries for textiles. The view of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park is possibly taken from a contemporary print, of which there were many (see, for example, the view reproduced in
H Hobhouse Prince Albert: His Life and Work , 1983, fig 94, p100). The view is from the junction of Exhibition Road, and gives a vivid impression of the length of the building.

Ronald Parkinson"

Materials

Oil paint; Canvas

Techniques

Oil painting

Categories

Paintings; The Great Exhibition

Collection code

PDP