The symbol of the exhibition was the meeting of the new, 20th century. The dominant style at the exhibition was Art Nouveau. Over seven months, the exhibition was visited by more than 50 million people, which is a record figure to this day. 35 countries presented their expositions in 18 thematic sections. The exhibition lasted from April 15 to November 12, 1900. It was visited by over 50 million people (a world record at that time) and brought an income of 7 million francs to the French treasury. Over 76 thousand participants took part in the exhibition; the exhibition area was 1.12 km².
Castle civil engineering and Transport, which housed some of the most innovative and influential industrial exhibits, was built in a vibrant and eclectic style. Towers, columns, potatoes topped with "pagoda-like roofs" - what did this hodgepodge of revived Greco-Roman motifs do with the nature of the exhibits inside?
However, modernity did not give best solution Problems. With its unique stylizations of ivy and ornate peacocks, the Nouveau style was nothing short of precious cloaking for industrial design. Traditional builders at least carried the aesthetic authority of thousands of years of religious and civil architecture. Art Nouveau, as beautiful as it was, ended up being for the rich. He did not approach the old "greatest good for the largest number» social goals of the past, nor to the emerging industrial aesthetic heralded by the Eiffel Tower.
In 1900 the government Russian Empire decided to demonstrate the country's technical power as fully as possible. The Parisians met halfway and allocated more than 24,000 m² to Russia for the exhibition. However, in the end even this area turned out to be not enough.
The article, based on memoirs and letters, shows the contradictory impressions of Russian visitors from the Parisian World Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900, which became the most visited and at which the achievements of Russian culture were most vividly presented.
Hector Guimard's entrance for the new Metro was the only major public application of the Art Nouveau style to Everyday life. Otherwise, the style turned out to be an elegant dead end in development architectural style. Art Nouveau pavilion located at the foot of Eiffel Tower; René Dulong, architect and Gustave Serrure-Bovy, decorator.
In past expositions, machine palaces were invariably housed in buildings that appeared, to Europeans at the time, to be second-class or utilitarian structures. As much as we might have admired the ferro-vitreous masterpieces of the 19th century, to our contemporaries these buildings were associated with train stations, greenhouses and indoor shopping malls. High style - buildings made of stone, decorated with taste and authoritative decorations inherited from the classical world, were reserved for important functions and important people.
In the second half of the 19th century. the prototypes of modern biennales, international economic forums and festivals were World Exhibitions. Since its first convening in 1851, the World Exhibitions of Commerce, Industry and the Arts began to gain increasing popularity and prestige - they were called “meetings of nations”.
Thanks to the nascent Institute of PR and professional advertising, it was possible to present the organization and its products here, to strengthen competitive positions in your country and in the world. At the World Exhibitions they not only competed, but also communicated, made deals, exchanged technologies and entered into long-term cooperation. The interest of Russian entrepreneurs, specialists, high-ranking officials, journalists and ordinary people in the “dating of peoples” was very high. Each such exhibition was accompanied by international congresses, at which a wide variety of topics were discussed.
To use this aristocratic vocabulary in housing industrial exhibits was to include them in that exalted rank - the title of Art and Empire. The most successful traditionalist building was the Petit Palais by Charles Guiraut. The name itself - "little palace" - evokes the exact mood that the architect wants to provoke: elegance, tradition, compacted wealth. These are all exquisite miniatures, built of light stone, very regular in their general plans, delicately abundant. The central dome of the Petit Palais confirms the greater glory of the Invalides across the Seine.
For partner states of that time, the participation of national industry in World Exhibitions became an important means of solving foreign policy problems. However, the main thing was that hundreds of thousands of visitors could get acquainted with the lifestyle, achievements different countries and peoples, in particular Russia, which still remained an exotic country for many. Thousands of tourists, specialists, travelers and simply curious people were attracted by the results of scientific and industrial activities: cars, rare crafts, colonial goods, as well as the atmosphere of an international holiday: “ <...>The streets are especially busy, - wrote a visitor to the 1889 Exhibition, artist M. V. Nesterov, - what kind of peoples you won’t see here: Arabs in their costumes, blacks, mulattoes, Indians».
The mansard roofs capped at the corners echo the Louvre further east along the Champs-Élysées. Or, as one observer put it, “There is a sense of tranquility in these tranquil sections which unconsciously attracts the visitor and encourages him to return day after day from the weary whirlwind of manifold spectacle.” 11. Today the Petit Palais houses the permanent art collection of the city of Paris. It was the only government-sponsored structure at the fair where the form of the building and the nature of the exhibition matched exactly.
Even those critics who opposed lavish external ornamentation on principle had to admit that the Petit Palais was a stone of this kind. The Decorative Revolution, which championed the Art Nouveau cause, reluctantly admitted that "here at least French grace has triumphed." Not a single visitor to the exhibition neglects to visit this wonderful palace, wrote Louis Rousselet, and when he leaves it, he only regrets that in a few months his wonderful collection must again be scattered in the four corners of France 12.
The Crimean War made it impossible for Russia to participate in the first Paris World Exhibition of 1855. O. von Bismarck wrote that at its height - August 15, 1855 (Napoleon I’s birthday) -through the streets Russian prisoners were escorted out of Paris. However, Russia subsequently participated in the World Exhibitions in Paris in 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900. The World Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900 deserve special attention, at which our country was most clearly represented.
The Petit Palais was built as one of two buildings dedicated to art and intended to grace the Right Bank after the fair closed. But while the Petit Palais charmed critics, the Grand Palais became a whirlwind of criticism. Massive stone paneling, heavily decorated with sculpture and friezes, surrounded a huge iron and glass interior. The spaciousness inside the building was truly impressive. It is as if a giant were flexing his muscles, strengthening his arms, and exerting enormous effort to lift a simple lace headdress above his head! 13.
Oddly enough, the 100-year retrospective was much more promising than the exhibition contemporary art. Traditional works dominated the Densenal; but there were several striking symbolic paintings that showed where academic realism was headed. The Pursuit of Happiness by Georges Rochegrosse and Descent into the Abyss by Henri Martin were Densenale favorites; and each showed that the realistic, narrative tradition of French painting was far from exhausted. Predecessors to Magritte and Dali, these artists were almost forgotten in the eventual triumph of impressionism and abstract art.
If the World Exhibition of 1867 was, according to N.M. Shchapov, a symbol of a “triumphant, but not lasting empire,” then the 1889 exhibition is a “triumphant but not lasting republic.” On the first day, about 500 thousand people visited it. The timing of the exhibition to coincide with the anniversary of the Great French Revolution, as well as internal Russian events (the struggle of the tsarist government with the revolutionaries) determined the refusal of the Russian government to officially participate in its work. Therefore, the Russian exposition was mainly compiled through the efforts and funds of interested enterprises, institutions and individuals. Everything that was connected with Russia was extremely popular and Russians were treated here with great sympathy: “ <...>Russians are celebrated here. Recently I was at the exhibition of Pasteur and Charcot (I think), - wrote M.V. Nesterov, - they were greeted, at that time they saw a Russian student, immediately they picked him up, began to rock him and shouts - “Long live Russia and long live France!” - the Exhibition was announced, and similar stories can often be found here". One of the most visited and most impressive pavilions was the “Palace of Machines” (“some kind of hell,” in the words of M. V. Nesterov), where new models of technology were demonstrated.
Everyone expected to see the Olympians of French art - David, Delacroix, Ingres, Meyssonnier. But many visitors were surprised to see the works of the Impressionists emerge as representatives of the glory of French art. Gauguin and Seurat each had one canvas.
Cezanne was represented by three works: Pissarro - 8, Manet - 12, Monet - an amazing 14 paintings. Not everyone was happy with the admission of “radicals” into the hallowed circle of officially accepted art. A famous incident occurred when Jean-Leon Gérôme, an implacable opponent of the Impressionists, accompanied President Loubet through the Grand Palais. When Loubet tried to enter the impressionist part of Central, Gerome raised his hands to block his path. "You shouldn't come in!" - Görem begged. “The shame of France lies in this room!” 14.
The Russian pavilion at the exhibition in Paris was more like small town. It was built in the Russian style and has many of its features (towers, hip roofs, battlements, patterned windows and porches) resembled the Moscow Kremlin. Nearby, Kustarnaya Street was built with typical Russian mansions, huts and a rural wooden church. The main focus of the extensive exhibition was on the ethnography of the so-called outskirts - Siberia, Far North, Central Asia, Caucasus.
But, as was always the case with Parisian expositions, the most daring artist kept his exhibition outside the exhibition complex. But Antonina Mercier's "Gloria the Victim" won the palm, and "Rodin" was reduced to decorative ornaments at the Trocadero fountain. Rodin had his own pavilion outside the exposition, but this time, with the blessing and financial assistance of the city of Paris. Long lines of fans came to appreciate and pay tribute to the man who successfully defied the naysayers and gained fame.
Originally commissioned for the Museum decorative arts, Hell's Gate has expanded into a huge autobiographical album. More than 180 figures flashed across its surface. Plaster version of Rodin's "Gates of Hell". No other figure in the pavilion so clearly demonstrated Rodin's special ability to create his own own rules in the representation of elemental human strength. The twisted body needs no clothing, no symbolic books or fountain pens, without a grand gesture or a thoughtful brow to express the power of Thoughts were not enough to express the thought.
Visiting Russian artists, for example M. V. Nesterov, were primarily interested in the French department of painting: “ <...>... seventeen halls. All the best things from France are here, many of them have received worldwide fame. All this is stunning at first, the brilliance surprises, the courage is extraordinary, you walk as if in a daze, your legs give way from fatigue, and everything new and new lies ahead...<...>But all this is good, beautiful, original, but not brilliant, and among the French there are geniuses who turned everything upside down. Not a single nation has left them, from us, many sinners, to the Americans. The first and greatest of the modern Frenchmen, in my opinion, is Bastien-Lepage. Each of his things is an event, it is a whole volume of wisdom, kindness and poetry» .
A short distance from the Rodin Pavilion on the Place de la Concorde stood another gate, crowned by a completely different symbolic figure: Renes Binet's monumental entrance to the exhibition, crowned by the Parisian couple Moreau-Vautier. It was to be the embodiment of the symbolic art of the exposition, the most appropriate sculpture of the entire event.
She was supposed to embody the quintessence of the Parisian character - taste, elegance and artful beauty. Moreau-Vautier began by choosing Sarah Bernhardt as his model. No actress was so admired, so breathless by the public, as “The Divine Sarah”. By making her the archetype of the Parisian spirit, Moreau-Vautier decided to show Paris as mature, elegantly presented in haute couture, talented and, above all, free. For her, a dress is a real divinity, in his opinion, should not be naked naked - Moreau-Vautier turned to Paquin, the most famous couturier of Paris.
Regarding the exposition of the Russian department fine arts, then, according to M.V. Nesterov, it was not the most successful: “The Russian department is shameful,” he wrote to his relatives. However, many works enjoyed attention, for example paintings by K.E. Makovsky, who received here gold medal.
On her head is a crown in the shape of a symbolic ship in Paris. The most exquisite woman, covered the best artist robe, at the top of the entrance to the largest international exhibition in the history of mankind. But as soon as the growth was made public, critics gave it a hard time. Every critic found something particularly irritating about the ladies of Paris. "The statue is too big for Port Binet."
“You can’t tell if she’s standing or sitting!” Only the government has the right to allow artists to use the symbol of the city of Paris. It looks ridiculous on top of that goose head! “This is the triumph of prostitution!” "Poor Parisian was just ugly." 16.
The highlight of the Exhibition was the Eiffel Tower, a metal bright red three-tier structure 305 m high erected on the Champs de Mars - “a fairy tale by Jules Verne”. She, towering over the Exhibition, like “a giant above the little guys,” shocked both the French and foreigners: “ In the evening we went to Notre Dame de Paris, along the way we could still see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It is like a pillar in the sky, covered with fog below, only its top is clearly visible with an electric torch." I was amazed by its illumination, as well as the entire Exhibition: “ <...>a particularly grand view of the Trocadéro. It was filled with fire, the Eiffel Tower was all red, like hot jelly. The fountains were launched and flowed with multi-colored water: sometimes green, sometimes purple, sometimes red, sometimes rainbow - beautiful and majestic» .
What irritated the intelligentsia was male self-assertion embodied in female form. The criticism was so fierce that there was even talk of removing the work before the exhibition closed. Why did The Thinker succeed where The Parisian failed? The answer provides the key to the critical paradoxes of the entire exposition. Moreau-Vautier worked according to a formula, mixing small waves of Art Nouveau style with traditional, melodramatic posing and idealized modeling.
Rodin successfully symbolized abstract force with the human body. The thinker reflected on the world of eternal suffering. Was this the world of squalor and injustice that Rodin showed Oscar Wilde, Claude Monet and tens of thousands of citizens of the world at the dawn of the twentieth century? “Even more beautiful than beauty itself is the destruction of something beautiful,” Rodin wrote. This is the glory of the human mind, which thinks and thinks alone - can, in an act of creative thought, give meaning human life, a meaning that cannot stop suffering, but can understand it and understand it, redeem it.
Anyone could climb the tower; other equally extreme services were also offered: “ <...>not yet
I decided,” wrote V.M. Vasnetsov, “maybe I’d prefer to climb (for the same price of 5 francs) in a balloon, you’ll be a few arshins higher than the tower, and they’ll give you a diploma that you flew, supposedly, on your own 400 meters.” from the earth» .
A large number of exhibits used electricity to facilitate the illusion. The most important was the cineorama, which demonstrated the first attempts to synchronize phonograph recordings with the newly developed moving pictures. But fear of fire - the cinema had suffered several tragic disasters just months before - forced this most innovative exhibition to close after just a few days.
10 synchronized 70mm film projectors projecting on the screen in a full circle while we stand in a large basket with balloon and we feel that we are sailing over France. The main pavilion, symbolizing the new era, was the Palace of Electricity and the Water Castle - two buildings in one.
At the service of hungry visitors was the so-called “Russian hut of the 15th century,” where a certain Dmitry Filimonovich, an Ufa merchant, traded: “ <...>Outside there is black bread, samovars, inside it is covered with red, and on the shelves there is Russian wooden utensils, and there is a large samovar on the table.<...>Groups of curious people approach the hut and look at it as if it were a savage’s home, smile and move on.". In the “Russian Izba” you could try traditional Russian dishes: cabbage soup, porridge, tea. So, M.V. Nesterov, surprisingly French, drank five glasses of tea and left “as if nothing had happened.” .
The impressive facade of the Palace of Electricity connects two avenues of pavilions on the Champs de Mars. The facade consists of nine bays covered with stained glass and delicate translucent ceramic decorations. In the center there is a scroll with a seal with an unforgettable date: In the evening, this openwork frieze is a real luminous embroidery of light and shifting colors. The Coronation Palace is a chariot painted with hippogriffs, the "Spirit of Electricity", which features showers of multi-colored flames.
But no: this facade of hippogriffs and kaleidoscopic embroidery had the power of exposition. This enchanted palace contains the living, active soul of the Exposition, providing it with movement and light. If for any reason the Palace of Electricity stops, the entire exhibition will be closed. 18.
At the exhibition of 1889, France, as they say, suppressed all other countries, exhibiting, in comparison with them, much more quality goods. However, there was something to brag about in the Russian department too “ <...>the calicos of Baranov and Morozov, the silk and brocade of Sapozhnikov, the silver of Khlebnikov and Ovchinnikov are good. In technical news, we tried the telephone - an opera was transmitted to the exhibition from a distance of 5 kilometers. The crematorium was also news". At the exhibition they admired “silk, velvet, furniture, bronze, porcelain, artificial flowers, velvet dresses (“mindlessness”), and finally, the engine room, where all the machines worked, and the public looked at them from the bridge moving slowly under the roof; glowing fountains (“how beautiful they are and it’s impossible to tell<...>""). The Russians rejoiced at the kaleidoscope of impressions, for which, in fact, they came: “ <...>you won’t see anything - the dance of Almeys from Algeria, and the Chinese theater in the Annam department, and the galloping of ragged Cairo boys on white donkeys. We tried oriental coffee and all sorts of other things you can see here» .
The Paris World Exhibition of 1900 summed up the results of the last century, surpassing all previous Exhibitions in cost and splendor. Outwardly, it looked “unprepossessing,” “huge,” and “stretching for many miles.” The architecture was reminiscent of the “Nemetti Garden” - a theater in St. Petersburg, founded by actress V. A. Linskaya-Nemetti. To attract the public and profitability, numerous places of entertainment and entertainment were installed on the Exhibition site, for example, a Ferris wheel with a diameter of 93 m, a large telescope, a giant globe and much more. Opened in July 1900, the Parisian metro became one of the most unique and interesting exhibits for French and foreign visitors.
Russia, as the main trade, cultural and military-political partner of France, took the most active and visible part in this grandiose event. For the first time, Russia had its own separate national pavilions here. The main one was located on a hillside in the Trocadero park, which the French public " greedily attacked<...>partly because there was almost nothing else to see at the exhibition, partly because of the feeling of that “aiiense” that now permeates the slightest contact between French and Russian» .
Nearby was the “Handicraft Pavilion”, in which decorative and applied arts, works of traditional and modern folk crafts. After the Exhibition ended, the French press expressed regret that the inhabitants of this “village” - the Russian workers who built it - had disappeared: "The French marveled at their fur hats caps with leather visors, tousled beards, hair cut into brackets, childish, good-natured eyes and gentle smiles. Our workers especially surprised their French comrades with their artistic ability to wield an ax and use it to make things out of wood for which a Frenchman uses a whole range of different tools.". An interesting message, also related to the construction of a handicraft pavilion, was made at the Society of Architects by A. A. Staborovsky, a producer of works in the Russian department of the World Exhibition. He said that the first batch of Russian carpenters who arrived to build the department created a real sensation in Paris.
Firstly, Russian workers, thanks to their red shirts and greased boots, seemed like a rare curiosity to the French: “The boys ran after them in a crowd, ran ahead, shouted to them “vive 1a Russie!”, gave them tobacco, cigarettes and newspapers to read, which our peasants used for cigarettes. The adults also showed their affection for them, treating them to cognac, which our workers drank in glasses of beer and plunged the company gathered around into amazement. The beautiful half of the human race also did not remain indifferent to œs petits Russes. People began to come to the commissariat for information about the material well-being of some workers; one young guy was not married only because he turned out to be already married" .
Secondly, the very methods of work and arrangement of Russian life seemed at least strange and surprising to the French. For example, the French were terribly afraid of fire, and therefore the most stringent fire safety measures were used at the exhibition: « <...>It took a lot of effort to get permission to build a Russian stove and kitchen for the workers. The Russian stove terrified the French, and they proposed installing gas fires.”. In addition, to speed up the work, despite the presence of 125 Russian carpenters, the French still had to be hired: “The French carpenters were not entirely comfortable: they didn’t have axes and didn’t know how to hew. The Russian workers, with their natural intelligence and intelligence, as well as their endurance and ability to adapt to all kinds of circumstances, caused great surprise among the French. With their almost primitive tools, our workers sometimes achieved the same results as the French. The French carpenters marveled at the ax dexterity of our workers and began to buy spare axes from them, and since our carpenters were reluctant to part with their only tool, the French, without hesitation, stole our axes, since there is nothing to get them in Paris.”
It should be noted that the French, when they encountered ordinary Russian people, were always admired by their qualities such as helpfulness, skill and agility: they sometimes replaced a lot of tools with one ax, with which they worked miracles. However, this did not prevent the French from realizing their superiority over the Russian workers. And indeed, thanks to their school training, they have come far ahead. «<...>Not all of our foremen understood the drawing as well as the French ordinary workers. The most complex designs and their drawings are executed extremely simply and accurately. Looking at our work, they could not understand our frame, brackets, scaffolding, etc., and tried to suggest their own methods. All wooden buildings and towers were erected by French carpenters without scaffolding, but with the help of prefabricated ladders, and the habit of working in this way developed in them the abilities of acrobats, so that our workers themselves called them “desperate” .
In general, the work at the Exhibition showed that talented and savvy Russian workers lack only basic school training and technical education, which Russian engineers regretted at every step: “Our worker is a talented self-taught person, as can be seen from the fact that everything was done no worse than French professionals, solely thanks to his ability.” .
A Military Pavilion was also built at the exhibition. But in general, the place provided to the Russians was, according to Princess M.K. Tenisheva, "extremely unprofitable<...>, because the Russian department at the exhibition did not turn out as spectacular as it could have been.<...>However, despite bad place, nevertheless, some Russian departments were very interesting" .
The World Exhibition of 1900 became the most visited in their entire previous history - over 48 million people. The artist I. S. Ostroukhov wrote to V. D. Polenov in September 1900: «<...>I lived from morning to night at the exhibition, which is a thousand times more interesting and serious than both the ones I saw in 1878 and 1889. This exhibition is really worth seeing." .
Not everyone was delighted with the scope of the large-scale action, since these “places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetish” with their “vital nerve - fetishism” erected a “commodity universe”, in which sometimes there was not enough room for the Parisians themselves: “The Parisian feels as if destroyed, he is strangled, crushed by the exotic element that has developed under the frames of the palace of industry<.>The presence of 500,000 foreigners in Paris is primarily manifested by the pressure of crowding at the main points of the capital and the complete impossibility of obtaining a hired carriage."- read in Russia about the Exhibition of 1855.
According to Russian observations, the same picture could be observed decades later, only on an even larger scale: "This type of international relations, - wrote P. Boborykin, - put a stamp on it (Paris) not for the benefit of what was the main attraction of Parisian street life. Exhibitions developed the pursuit of curious novelty, flooded Paris with all kinds of visiting people who follow only the lure of advertising and curiosity.”. . The first impression of the artist E. D. Polenova from the Exhibition of 1889 was as unpleasant as from “huge, cheap and untalented advertising. There’s a lot of popular print,” she wrote, “but very little subtlety.”. It was later, after a more careful study, that she found a lot of interesting things here. The main drawback of the Exhibition, according to the artist, was that it "too big and a good thing lost in a huge number of things that are unimportant, mediocre and often even bad.” » . “Living in Paris is good, - she wrote to E. G. Mamontova, - but not when there’s an exhibition, otherwise it’s terribly tiring.<...>I feel very energetic again in spirit, which was not the case the first time I arrived here.” .
The achievements of mankind sometimes evoked mixed feelings of delight and horror among some representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, since it was almost impossible to imagine an even more advanced development of science and technology. Unprecedented progress, piercing like an arrow into the outcome of the 19th century, was bound, in the opinion of domestic observers, to reach some kind of dead end and lead to degradation. From Paris in 1889, in which one can “resolutely forget everything, father, mother, clan, and tribe,” V. Vasnetsov wrote: “What about the exhibition? This, I think, is something terrible in its infinity, in its boundless accumulation of wealth, labor, culture (!), genius, talent. I certainly imagine that this must be terrifying, because where to go? What else remains to be completed? Meanwhile, people will go even further. God! Yes, this is already quite scary! There will certainly be people to eat! ». To the religious philosopher N. Fedorov, the Exhibition in Paris of 1889 and the French Exhibition in Moscow (“and this in a year like the hungry year of 1891”) seemed almost animated monsters: “To expect that the blind force, given to the control of this conscious being and not controlled by it, would itself produce only good, give only good harvests, - this is the height of childishness<...>. How can one not say that the Lord was apparently angry at our continued minority!”. He believed that industry and trade are “all this little thing that he is so proud of modern man, which he collects from all over the earth under the inappropriate name of “World (Exhibitions)” and which holds under the yoke of human thought and activity, even the most physical classrooms and laboratories - all this is just “children’s” sciences.
In October 1900, 18-year-old Margarita Sabashnikova, a future famous artist, poetess, writer and wife of the poet M. Voloshin, went to Paris: "The Face of the Beloved City"<...>,” she recalls, “was distorted by this monster—that’s how I perceived the Exhibition.<....>I felt lost in this hustle and bustle. The Trocadero waterfalls, illuminated by sparklers, the swirling skirts of Louise Fuller, also illuminated by sparklers, the false exotic dances of the famous beauty Cleo de Merode, and especially the dazzling audience left only a feeling of emptiness and despondency in my soul. Among all kinds of machines and spectacles, questions about the meaning of this entire culture and the meaning of life in general haunted me all the time.”. At the Exhibition - the quintessence of material and technical progress, the naturalism of which so wounded the delicate young soul, Sabashnikova was truly delighted only by the Japanese theater with the famous actress Sadayakko, the first woman on the Japanese stage: “This art,” I thought, “comes from ancient culture, why is such art inaccessible to us in our time? Ancient cultures were artistically superior to ours!” .
The philanthropist and collector of collections of Russian antiquities, the wife of the General Commissioner of the Russian Department, M.K. Tenisheva, who played one of the leading roles in organizing Russia’s success at international representation, writes about the “nervous hustle and bustle of Paris”, fatigue from the hyper-buzzing life in the “capital of the world”. The Exhibition itself left few pleasant impressions in her memory: «<...>I consider it a complete failure. There was nothing original or new in it, and, studying and examining it, I could not bear anything but fatigue. Starting with its location and the same Eiffel Tower, which was already an eyesore before the exhibition, ending with the complete decline of creativity discovered by the French nation - everything together was unpleasant. Poor French couldn't break out of style Louis XVI, and all the hastily erected buildings bore the imprint of a decline in taste and testified to the poverty of artistic tasks. It was disgusting to see this endless row of buildings, huge exhibition sheds, with plaster moldings. Looking at them, I thought that if France did not make an effort and break these shackles of two centuries of copying an undoubtedly great past, it would die for art, and it would not be so easy to be reborn. Even applied art and its branch, which formerly constituted the glory of France - “l" art precieux,” now stand very low there.” .
V. Vasnetsov wrote to his brother in September 1900: “The impressions you received from the exhibition do not really encourage you to go there. You will get tired, but you will not take away anything significant in your soul. Why did they fool us that the place for our paintings is wonderful!”. The French political journalist A. Leroy-Beaulieu was also a staunch opponent of the World Exhibitions. They, according to him, due to their incredibly growing size and costs, are becoming more and more impossible and useless, turning into some kind of bazaars where the visitor is looking only for entertainment. He dreamed that the Exhibition of 1900 would be the last.
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Authorship:
A copy of someone else's materials
Name, year: World's Fair in Paris, 1900
Country city : France Paris
The scale of the event: 35 participating countries
Number of visitors : more than 50 million people
Duration: April 15 to November 12, 1900.
World's Fair 1900(fr. Exposition Universelle) was held in Paris (France). The symbol of the exhibition was the meeting of the new, 20th century. The dominant style at the exhibition was Art Nouveau. Over seven months, the exhibition was visited by more than 50 million people, which is a record figure to this day. 35 countries presented their expositions in 18 thematic sections. The participation of the Russian Empire, France’s closest ally at that time, was especially significant.
It was built especially for the exhibition a large number of objects: Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Orsay (now the Orsay museum), Pont Alexandre III, Grand and Petit palaces, Hive squat in Montparnasse (it was conceived as a wine rotunda for temporary use). The first line of the Paris metro began operating during the exhibition on July 19, 1900. Machine gallery (Salle des Machines) was later converted into the Winter Velodrome (Vélodrome d'hiver), which earned notoriety during the German occupation. In addition, the trolleybus network operated during the exhibition.
Part of the exhibition was the Second Olympic Games, which took place for five whole months - from May to October. These were the first games with women's participation. Competitions in thirteen out of 20 sports were held for the first time.
The main principle of the exhibition is to place raw products and methods of processing them sequentially, so that visitors see not just a collection of objects, but understand how this or that product is obtained. Machines and instruments operated right before the eyes of visitors. Each department had something like a small museum, from which samples could be used to judge successes in this area. Thus, the history of technical means included A. Lavoisier’s chemical apparatus, L. Pasteur’s microscope, Robert’s first paper-making machine, and A. Moissan’s apparatus for producing artificial diamonds.
Here the world learned about new scientific discoveries and technical achievements.
Russia had been poorly represented at previous World's Fairs, but at the 1900 Exhibition the government decided to demonstrate Russia's technical power as fully as possible. Thanks to the special friendly relations between Russia and France, the largest exhibition area was allocated for the Russian department - 24,000 m².
Russia spent 5,226,895 rubles on participation in the exhibition (of which the government allocated 2,226,895, and institutions and exhibitors 3,000,000 rubles). The highest established commission was headed by the director of the Department of Trade and Manufactures V.I. Kovalevsky, in addition to him, Prince Tenishev was appointed general commissioner, and the St. Petersburg resident Meltzer was chosen as the chief architect. . D. I. Mendeleev, who was vice-president of the International Jury, took an active part in the exhibition.
The Russian department began its work only on April 17, two days after the opening of the exhibition. Of the 18 thematic departments (palaces) presented at the exhibition, Russia did not participate in only one - the colonization department. Separate buildings were built for some parts of the Russian exposition because there was not enough allocated space. The central pavilion turned out to be built according to Meltzer's design. Pavilion of Russian outskirts, repeating the architecture of the Moscow and Kazan Kremlins. Nearby, Kustarnaya Street was built with typical Russian mansions, huts and a rural wooden church. Near the Eiffel Tower there was an Alcohol Pavilion, where there was an alcohol rectification plant and souvenir bottles of Russian vodka were sold. The pavilion of M. S. Kuznetsov and the showcases of P. I. Kharitonenko were built according to the design of the architect F. O. Shekhtel.
During the exhibition, the Russian exposition received 1,589 awards: 212 highest, 370 gold medals, 436 silver, 347 bronze and 224 honorable mentions.
The gold medal of the exhibition was awarded to the Russian engineer Lavr Proskuryakov by a special committee headed by Gustav Eiffel for the Krasnoyarsk railway bridge. Great impression An exhibition of the Ministry of Railways, designed by the artist Pyasetsky, dedicated to the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama - was produced. The public entered carriages simulating the movement of a train, from which they could enjoy Russian landscapes that changed with the help of a special mechanism. At the end of the "path" visitors walked out the door with reverse side and ended up in the Chinese department. This attraction was awarded the highest award, the Grand Prix. Mertsalov's palm forged from rail was also awarded the Grand Prix. The Minusinsk Museum of Local Lore was awarded a silver medal.
The Crystal Grand Prix of the exhibition and a large gold medal went to the cast iron pavilion of the Kyshtym Mining District made by the Kasli plant, created according to the design of the architect-artist E. E. Baumgarten.
The 1900 World's Fair featured the first public appearances of sound films and escalators, and Campbell Soup was awarded a gold medal (which is still featured on the soup can to this day). Rudolf Diesel presented to the exhibition visitors diesel engine, running on rapeseed oil. Many panoramic paintings and new panoramic techniques were also presented, such as the sinorama, mareorama and the Trans-Siberian railway panorama.