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Lot Essay
The Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park in 1851, to house Prince Albert's visionary project for a Great Exhibition to celebrate the scientific invention and industrial achievement of the Victorian age. The enormous iron and glass structure, 1.848-ft long by 408-ft wide with a transept 108-ft high (see fig. 1), was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865), head gardener at Chatsworth and an expert on greenhouses. Opened by Queen Victoria on 1st May, the Exhibition proved a tremendous success, attracting over six million visitors and making a profit of 180,000 by its close on 15th October. In 1852-3 the building was moved to a permanent site in Sydenham, enlarged and opened on 10th June 1854 for exhibitions, concerts and other forms of entertainment, until it was destroyed by fire on the night of 30th November 1936.
The present view depicts the main entrance at the central intersection of the nave and transepts where the enormous glass fountain was one of the first sights upon entering the building. A line of carriages disappears off into the distance awaiting to deliver visitors to the exhibition and Lami delights in the portrayal of the fashions and postures of elegant visitors in the foreground.
Eugne-Louis Lami specialized in scenes from fashionable life commissioned by a predominantly royal and aristocratic clientele. He learnt the art of watercolour from Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) who persuaded him to visit London in 1825-6, where he published Souvenirs de Londres. As official painter to King Louis-Phillipe he recorded the visit of Queen Victoria to France in 1843 and the Emperor Napoleon III was to employ him to contribute to an album made for the Queen as a souvenir of her visit to Paris in 1855. Lami followed the Orlans family into exile in England in 1848, living at 30 Onslow Square, South Kensington for the next four years. During this period he served as a jury member for the Great Exhibition and was commissioned by the Queen to depict an interior view of the opening ceremony. The result was deemed by Her Majesty to be a 'beautiful watercolour' (Millar, op.cit., p.513, no. 3149).
A further two sets of eight watercolours of the Great Exhibition were commissioned by Prince Anatole Demidoff (1812-1870) one set for himself and the other for the Empress of Russia. The present watercolour is the exterior view of the Palace, included in the the Demidoff sale.
Demidoff moved from Russia to Florence with his family in 1820. He married Princess Mathilde, daughter of the Prince de Montfort and extended the Villa built by his father at San Donato, decorating it with work commissioned from contemporary artists. Later Demidoff bought from the Bonaparte family the Villa S. Martino on the island of Elba and turned it into a Napoleonic Museum. On his death in 1870 the contents of San Donato were sold in Paris.
The present view depicts the main entrance at the central intersection of the nave and transepts where the enormous glass fountain was one of the first sights upon entering the building. A line of carriages disappears off into the distance awaiting to deliver visitors to the exhibition and Lami delights in the portrayal of the fashions and postures of elegant visitors in the foreground.
Eugne-Louis Lami specialized in scenes from fashionable life commissioned by a predominantly royal and aristocratic clientele. He learnt the art of watercolour from Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) who persuaded him to visit London in 1825-6, where he published Souvenirs de Londres. As official painter to King Louis-Phillipe he recorded the visit of Queen Victoria to France in 1843 and the Emperor Napoleon III was to employ him to contribute to an album made for the Queen as a souvenir of her visit to Paris in 1855. Lami followed the Orlans family into exile in England in 1848, living at 30 Onslow Square, South Kensington for the next four years. During this period he served as a jury member for the Great Exhibition and was commissioned by the Queen to depict an interior view of the opening ceremony. The result was deemed by Her Majesty to be a 'beautiful watercolour' (Millar, op.cit., p.513, no. 3149).
A further two sets of eight watercolours of the Great Exhibition were commissioned by Prince Anatole Demidoff (1812-1870) one set for himself and the other for the Empress of Russia. The present watercolour is the exterior view of the Palace, included in the the Demidoff sale.
Demidoff moved from Russia to Florence with his family in 1820. He married Princess Mathilde, daughter of the Prince de Montfort and extended the Villa built by his father at San Donato, decorating it with work commissioned from contemporary artists. Later Demidoff bought from the Bonaparte family the Villa S. Martino on the island of Elba and turned it into a Napoleonic Museum. On his death in 1870 the contents of San Donato were sold in Paris.