Exposition Universelle (Paris 1878)

Overview

The Paris Universal Exposition (Exposition universelle) of 1878, held from 1 May to 10 November 1878 on the Champ de Mars and at the newly built Trocadéro Palace. It marked France's recovery after the Franco-Prussian War and showed, among other novelties, the telephone and electric lighting (as summarised in the footnote at 082.0163; see also Wikipedia, «Exposition universelle de 1878»). In Marie's diary it is "l'Exposition", the event that brings her family back to Paris in the autumn of 1877 and fills the social life of the summer of 1878. Not to be confused with the Vienna exposition of 1873, the Nice exhibitions, or the picture exhibitions mentioned in her diary.

Before the Exposition (1877)

The coming fair weighs on her choice of where to live: «il me faut toujours penser à l'Exposition 1878 pour [consentir] à aller à Paris» (071.0466, 1877-05-26); «je retournerai encore à Paris puisque c'est là que sont mes études et à cause de l'Exposition» (072.0440, 1877-07-08); «Et l'Exposition ! … On peut venir pour l'Exposition !» (073.0039, 073.0098); «Pourquoi Paris ! Pour l'Exposition ! Que me fait-elle ? Rien» (074.0010, 1877-08-20); «Paris est le bazar universel et puis il y a l'Exposition» (074.0171, 1877-08-31). The photographer Waléry asks leave to exhibit a portrait of her «à l'Exposition Universelle de 1878» (073.0398, 1877-08-11), and a painter's letter pasted in the diary tells a client that a picture cannot be ready for «la grande Exposition Universelle» and will go to the Salon instead (076.0049, 1877-11-05; the RSR note there identifies the Paris fair of 1878).

Politics

A Figaro cutting records the hope that the Exposition will revive business (079.0121, 1878-03-27); a letter on «Nuisez à l'Exposition», the Bonapartist plot against it (079.0421); Marie: «Cette exposition qui malgré les machinations bonapartistes a tenu parole» (079.0625). The conservatives hope for «des troubles à la fin de l'Exposition» (081.0437, 1878-07-14).

Marie's visits

• 1878-05-01, opening day: «j'ai passé deux heures affreuses dans une galerie commune pleine de toutes sortes de gens», Dina in white satin, their toilettes «déplacées» among princes and ambassadors (079.0622). 05-02: «j'ai parcouru l'exposition avec Schaeppi» (079.0627). 05-05: again with Anna Nordgren, paying attention only to the paintings (080.0010). 05-11: with Schaeppi and her aunt to see the pictures and the Spanish pretender don Carlos (080.0095).
• 1878-05-20: Mme Yorke proposes the ball of the Foreign Affairs, «le bal le plus curieux de l'Exposition après celui de l'ambassade d'Angleterre» (080.0193); Marie weeps «plus fort que la grande cascade de l'Exposition» (080.0198). 05-27: her family meet Miss Foster there (080.0305). 06-04: she meets the marquis de Pascarola of Naples there (080.0411); Fio wants her to lunch there the next day (080.0415).
• 1878-07-02 to 07-04: with the Gavinis and Multedo, who accompanies them (081.0219, 081.0240, 081.0274, 081.0302). 08-21: «L'Exposition m'a rompue !» (082.0163). 08-29: carts coming from the Exposition (082.0221). 10-03 and 10-05: she prefers it to going to Florence (082.0514, 082.0548).
• 1878-10-12: Tony Robert-Fleury has received a medal at the Exposition Universelle (082.0598). 10-23 to 11-09, the last days: afternoons of the atelier given up for the fair, usually with the Gavinis (083.0018, 083.0027, 083.0069, 083.0088, 083.0142, 083.0160).
• 1879-04-09: Anna Nordgren had a picture in the Swedish fine-arts section of the Exposition (084.0640).

Not this fair

Marie also speaks of a proposed universal exposition in Italy for 1881 (Florence, 080.0354, 1878-05-30); that is not the Paris fair.

References in Diary

071.0466; 072.0440; 073.0039, 0098, 0269, 0398; 074.0010, 0171; 076.0049; 079.0121, 0421, 0622, 0625, 0627; 080.0010, 0095, 0193, 0198, 0206, 0210, 0235, 0305, 0368, 0376, 0411, 0415, 0418; 081.0219, 0240, 0274, 0302, 0437; 082.0163, 0173, 0221, 0514, 0548, 0598; 083.0018, 0027, 0069, 0088, 0142, 0160; 084.0640.