Édouard Manet - L'execution de Maximilien (London)

Manet, Edouard - The Execution of Emperor Maximilian, 1867

Édouard Manet - L'exécution de Maximilien (Copenhagen)

''The Execution of Emperor Maximilian'' is a series of paintings by Édouard Manet from 1867 to 1869, depicting the execution by firing squad of Emperor Maximilian I of the short-lived

Second Mexican Empire The Second Mexican Empire (), officially the Mexican Empire (), was a constitutional monarchy established in Mexico by Mexican monarchists in conjunction with the Second French Empire. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second French i ...

. Manet produced three large oil paintings, a smaller oil sketch and a

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

of the same subject. All five works were brought together for an exhibition in London and Mannheim in 1992–1993 and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2006.

History

Maximilian was born in 1832, the son of

Archduke Franz Karl of Austria Archduke Franz Karl Joseph of Austria (17 December 1802 – 8 March 1878) was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. He was the father of two emperors: Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico. Through his third son Karl Lu ...

and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. After a career in the Austrian Navy, he was encouraged by Napoleon III to become Emperor of Mexico following the French intervention in Mexico. Maximilian arrived in Mexico in May 1864. He faced significant opposition from forces loyal to the deposed president Benito Juárez throughout his reign, and the Empire collapsed after Napoleon withdrew French troops in 1866. Maximilian was captured on Cerro de las Campanas in May 1867, sentenced to death at a court martial, and executed, together with Generals Miguel Miramón and

Tomás Mejía Tomás may refer to: * Tomás (given name) * Tomás (surname) Tomás is a Spanish and Portuguese surname, equivalent of ''Thomas''. It may refer to: * Antonio Tomás (born 1985), professional Spanish footballer * Belarmino Tomás (1892–1950), ...

, on 19 June 1867. Manet supported the Republican cause, particularly as represented by Léon Gambetta, but was inspired to start work on a painting, heavily influenced by Goya's '' The Third of May 1808''. The final work, painted in 1868–1869 is now held by the

Kunsthalle Mannheim The Kunsthalle Mannheim is a museum of modern and contemporary art, built in 1907, established in 1909 and located in Mannheim, Germany. Since then it has housed the city's art collections as well as temporary exhibitions – and up to 1927 those ...

. The painting is signed by Manet in the lower left corner but bears the date of Maximilian's execution in 1867, despite being painted in 1868–1869. Fragments of an earlier and larger painting from about 1867–1868 are held by the National Gallery in London. Parts of that work were probably cut off by Manet, but it was largely complete on his death. Other parts were sold separately after his death. The surviving pieces were reassembled by

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

and they were bought by the National Gallery in 1918, then separated again until 1979, and finally combined on one canvas in 1992. A third, unfinished, oil painting is held by the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, donated from Mr. and Mrs.

Frank Gair Macomber Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cu ...

in 1930, who bought it from

Ambroise Vollard Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was a French art dealer who is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is credited with providing exposure and emotio ...

in 1909. A much smaller work in oils, the study for the Mannheim painting is held by the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. Manet was refused permission to reproduce the lithograph in 1869, but an edition of 50 impressions was produced in 1884, after his death. Examples of the lithograph are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In the Boston version of the painting, the soldiers wear clothes and sombrero of Mexican Republicans. In the final version in Mannheim, " e soldiers in the painting wear uniforms almost identical to French troops, and the man preparing for the coup de grâce shares the conspicuous features of Napoleon III. The implication was clear: Napoleon III had blood on his hands. Unsurprisingly, the painting was banned from public display in Paris" during the reign of Napoleon III, but the Mannheim version was exhibited in New York and Boston in 1879–1880, brought there by Manet's friend, the opera singer

Émilie Ambre Émilie Gabrielle Adèle Ambre (''née'' Ambroise; (1849 – April 1898) was a French opera singer who performed leading soprano roles in Europe and North America and later became a singing teacher. Born in French Algeria and trained at the Mars ...

.Tinterow, Gary and Lacambre, Geneviève (2003)
''Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting''
p. 503. Metropolitan Museum of Art The Mannheim and Boston versions were exhibited together at the Salon d'Automne in 1905. The Mannheim version was acquired by the Kunsthalle Mannheim in 1910 after it had been exhibited at the

Berliner Secession The Berlin Secession was an art movement established in Germany on May 2, 1898. Formed in reaction to the Association of Berlin Artists, and the restrictions on contemporary art imposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, 65 artists "seceded," demonstrating a ...

earlier that year. File:Emperor maximilian of mexico.jpg, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, c.1865 File:General tomas mejia.jpg, General Tomás Mejía, c.1864 File:Miramon 1860s.png, General Miguel Miramón, c.1860s File:El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya, from Prado thin black margin.jpg, Goya's ''The Third of May 1808''. File:Photography of Execution of Maximilian I of Mexico, Miramón and Mejía — 1867.jpg, Reconstruction of the execution of Maximilian (right in photograph) Miramón (center) and Mejía (left).

References

National Gallery, London
* Museum of Modern Art, New York *
Painting
*
2006 exhibition
*

''The Guardian'', 6 January 2007

Clark Art Institute

''New York'' magazine

* John Elderfield,
Manet and the Execution of Maximilian''
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2006,
''Manet's Modernism: Or, The Face of Painting in the 1860s''
Michael Fried, p. 346–364
''Manet's Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets''
James Henry Rubin, p. 72–81
Ken McMullen's 1867
on IMDb

Sources

* Oskar Bätschmann: ''Edouard Manet, Der Tod des Maximilian. Eine Kunst-Monographie''. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Execution of Emperor Maximilian, The Paintings by Édouard Manet 1869 paintings Collections of the National Gallery, London Paintings in the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Paintings about death Cultural depictions of Maximilian I of Mexico

History

References

Sources

Further reading

External links