“The Exposition Universelle,” painted in 1867 by Edouard Manet, is an oil on canvas artwork belonging to the Realism movement and classified as a genre painting. This piece represents the grand World’s Fair held in Paris, France that year. It currently resides in the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway.
In this artwork, we observe a lively scene of the Exposition Universelle. The painting depicts a variety of figures leisurely engaging in an array of activities, set against a sprawling backdrop of the fair. The foreground is animated with people in mid-19th-century attire; we see women in dresses with full skirts, men in suits and hats, and a central figure on horseback. The brushstrokes are loose and spontaneous, capturing the essence of the bustling atmosphere, highlighted by a sense of immediacy and movement. The fair’s architecture and the distant structures are painted with lighter touches, conveying their grandeur and the scale of the event. A festive hot air balloon is visible in the sky, which emphasizes the celebratory mood of the scene. Manet’s use of light and shadow enhances the depth and realism of the painting, allowing viewers to experience the dynamism of this historical event.
