The Great Exhibition "Wot is to Be", Probable Results of The Industry of All Nations in The Year '51, Showing What is to be Exhibited, Who is To Exhibit, in Short How Its All Going to Be Done

Art Historical Context

Step into the whimsical world of 1850s satire with *The Great Exhibition "Wot to Be"*, a clever wood engraving by George Augustus, credited alongside the fictional "Committee of the Society for Keeping Things in Their Places." on the eve of London's Great Exhibition of 1851 world's first international fair held in the groundbreaking Crystal Palace—this print pokes fun at the mounting hype. The sprawling title promises a cheeky preview of "probable results from the "industry of all nations," imagining chaotic displays of global wares, exhibitors, and innovations in a comically overcrowded scene. Sala, a sharp-witted journalist and illustrator, employs the precise lines of wood engraving—a popular 19th-century technique for affordable, reproducible prints in periodicals—to capture flags, coats of arms, and throngs of men in exaggerated disarray. This satirical jab reflects mid-Victorian anxieties and excitement about Britain's industrial dominance, globalization, and the fair's promise of progress, which drew over six million visitors. Rather than glorifying, it humorously questions "how it's all going to be done." Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1963), this modest 5 x 9-inch sheet endures as a snapshot of cultural fervor, reminding us how art can lampoon even the grandest ambitions with a knowing wink.

About the Artist

George Augustus Sala|Committee of the Society for Keeping Things in Their Places (British|British) · 1828 |1840 –1895 |1860

British, London 1828–1895 Hove|London