Colonial Produce

The Great Exhibition, held in Hyde Park in 1851, displayed goods and produce from all over the world inside the purpose-built Crystal Palace.

Nash's print, one of several by him documenting the Exhibition, offers an interior view of some of the stalls showing produce from the colonies. During the 1850s, the British Empire included parts of Africa, the Caribbean, India and the dominions of Australia and Canada.

This print illustrates the food grown in the Caribbean such as sugar cane and bananas. A Caribbean woman, who is possibly looking after the Bahamas stall, talks to two children interested in the exhibits, whilst vistors wander around the room, holding brochures.

An architectural painter and lithographer, Nash worked with the architect Augustus Charles Pugin and made prints after his drawings, which were later published.