Gibsons, "The Great Exhibition 1851 - Louis Haghe", 1000pcs

2017.07.29 - date completed
Gibsons Games (UK)
Heritage
"The Great Exhibition 1851 - Louis Haghe" 1994 year
1000 piece de luxe puzzle
Illustration: Luis Haghe

NOTE: The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first truly international exhibition. Half of the exhibitors came from Britain and the British Empire, the remainder being drawn from all parts of the world.
The Exhibition was "carried out by its own private means; was self-supporting and independent of taxes and employment of slaves" and it made a profit of £186,000!
The Exhibition had its critics. Originally to be built of bricks and mortar some thought that the erection of such a large structure would be a scar on the landscape. The building would cover 19 acres in Hyde Park, "nearly the only spot where Londoners can get a breath of fresh air". However, the opponents of the scheme were finally beaten and work in earnest began.
It was a design by Joseph Paxton which was finally adopted, although his drawings reached the Executive Committee only days before their final plans were due to be published. The materials, which Paxton has used previously to such good effect, where not bricks and mortar but iron and glass. This revolutionary design meant that the building could be dismantled at the close of Exhibition rather than remain a permanent feature. His building, soon to be dubbed by "Punch" magazine as "The Crystal Palace" was slightly modified so as to accommodate three giant Elm trees which stood right across the site. These can be seen in Haghe's painting.
The first column were in place by early September 1850, the first ribs of the great transept were hauled up on the 4th December and by the end of January 1851 the main structure was complete.
First exhibits started to arrive on the 12th February 1851 and on the 1st May the Great Exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria in the presence of over 25,000 members of the public.
The Exhibition stayed open to the public until the 11th October 1851. The Crystal Palace was dismantled and moved to a new site on Sydenham Hill in South London where it was re-erected in a modified form. It opened in 1854 and became a famous resort for festivals, shows and large functions. In 1936 the building was completely destroyed by fire.

Facts and figures: The main building was 1,848 feet long by 408 broad. However, on the north side an extension was added being 936 feet long by 48 feet broad, this making the maximum breadth of the Crystal Palace 456 feet. The Crystal Palace was therefore over three times the length of St. Paul's Cathedral.
There were 3 entrances,17 exits and 10 double staircases to the galleries.
Materials used in the building of Crystal Palace included 293,655 panes of glass, 4,500 tonnes of iron, 600,000 cubic feet of timber and 24 miles of guttering.
There were 13,937 exhibitors including 6.556 from outside the British Isles and Empire.
From the 1st May to the 11th October there were 6,039,135 visitors to the Exhibition. The largest attendance in a single day was on the 7th October when 109,915 visitors were recorded.

Louis Haghe (17 March 1806, Tournai, Belgium – 9 March 1885, Surrey) was a lithographer and watercolour artist.
His father and grandfather had practised as architects. Training in his teens in watercolour painting, he found work in the relatively new art of lithography when the first press was set up in Tournai. He visited England to find work, and settled there permanently in 1823.
Together with William Day (1797–1845), around 1830 he formed the partnership Day & Haghe, which became the most famous early Victorian firm of lithographic printing in London.
Day and Haghe created and printed lithographs dealing with a wide range of subjects, such as hunting scenes, architecture, topographical views and genre depictions. They pioneered the new techniques for chromolithography as well as hand-tinted lithographs. After William's death in 1845, the firm became known as 'Day & Son'. They were pioneers in developing the medium of the lithograph printed in colours.
In 1838, Day and Haghe were appointed 'Lithographers to the Queen'. Possibly his most ambitious project was providing 250 images for David Roberts' The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia printed between 1842–9. Roberts praised his skill and artistry, although John Ruskin called it 'forced'.
From the mid-1850s Haghe concentrated more on his watercolours, and gained a reputation for his architectural scenes of northern Europe, with his pictures bought and displayed by the Victoria and Albert Museum. He also painted in oils, which were exhibited at the British Institution. He became president of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours from 1873 to 1884.
Haghe's artistic works were achieved in spite of a deformity in his right hand since birth. He died at Stockwell Road on 9 March 1885 and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.
His younger brother Charles Haghe (-1888) (also known as Charles Hague) was employed as an assistant at Day and Haghe, and remained there after Louis left.