Exposition Universelle … “Produits Départementaux”

The Exposition Universelle des produits de l’Agriculture, de l’Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris (The Paris Universal Exposition of Agriculture, Industry, and the Fine Arts) took place on the Champs-Elysées in Paris from May to November in 1855 and attracted millions of visitors. This celebration of French progress was conceived by Napoleon III to surpass London’s Great Exposition of 1851 in all respects, and to assert the power and sophistication of the French state. At this same time, the face of Paris was changing under the renovations authored by the prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann, under orders from Napoleon III. Here, Daumier ridicules the country bumpkins coming to Paris to attend the fair; his punning title likens them to agricultural products—wines, cheeses, and the like—that also came from the various “départements” or governmental regions of the country to feature in the fair. Daumier contrasts the slack-jawed astonishment of the provincial couples as they take in the wide boulevards of the big city with the confidence and arrogance of the Parisian flaneurs out for a stroll.

(Andrew C. Weislogel, “Mirror of the City: The Printed View in Italy and Beyond, 1450–1940,” catalogue accompanying an exhibition organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Stuart M. Blumin, and presented at the Johnson Museum August 11–December 23, 2012)