The Great Exhibition, 1851: Child caressing his Defender by Lechesne

Photograph of a plaster sculpture of child sitting on and embracing a semi-recumbent dog. The child places his arms around the dog's neck. In the foreground is the decapitated head of a snake, with the snake's body lying on the far left side of the sculpture. The sculpture was part of a pair and accompanied the sculpture depicted in photograph RCIN 2800139. This sculpture shows the dog has killed the snake and saved the child. The sculpture by Auguste Jean-Baptiste Lechesne (1815-88) was exhibited in the Great Exhibition.

This photograph is from Volume IV (RCIN 2800003) of ' Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851: Reports by the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty Classes into which the Exhibition was Divided'. The incredibly successful Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, commonly known as the Great Exhibition, ran from May to October 1851. At the exhibition's conclusion, over 100 copies of the four volume 'Reports by the Juries' were distributed to foreign governments and notable participants. The reports consist of the juries' comments and assessments of the works displayed in the exhibition. The idea and decision to illustrate the reports with photographs is attributed to Prince Albert (1819-61).