Bird's Eye View of the Universal Exposition, Paris 1867

Curator: This work, attributed to Eugène Cicéri, presents a bird's eye view of the Universal Exposition in Paris. Editor: The incredible detail gives it an almost dreamlike quality, despite the industrial subject. It's intricate, almost overwhelming in its detail. Curator: Indeed. These Universal Expositions were colossal displays of industrial progress and cultural exchange. Cicéri has captured the physical manifestation of 19th-century optimism. Editor: I'm struck by the way the ordered geometry of the fair clashes a little with the more organic layout of the city itself. Is that tension intentional, do you think? Curator: Perhaps it's an implicit commentary on the imposition of industrial order onto the existing urban fabric. Or simply a contrast between progress and tradition. Editor: It gives you a lot to think about. The artist has created a world within a world.