The Opening of the Great Exhibition by Queen Victoria is an 1852 history painting by the British artist Henry Courtney Selous.

[1] It depicts the opening of the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park on 1 May 1852.

[2] Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children are on the raised dias in the centre of the painting, surrounded by government ministers, other leading figures such as the Duke of Wellington and foreign delegations.

The Archbishop of Canterbury John Bird Sumner blesses the proceedings.

Today it is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, which was built from the proceeds of the Great Exhibition, and was acquired in 1889.