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Article: The Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester, 1857.
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- June 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A major concern of mid-Victorian Britain was the relationship between art and industry. One of the key moments in this debate, often overlooked, was the Art Treasures Exhibition held in Manchester in 1857. The posthumous publication of Francis Haskell's Epbemeral Museum last year (1) has made it clear that the issues raised by this display of fine art in Britain's industrial heartland (see Pl. V) deserve closer inspection.
The French social commentator Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) visited the great mill town of Manchester in 1835 and was appalled by what he found:
A sort of black smoke covers the city .... Under this half-daylight 500,000 human ...