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 Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bor ...

from 1867 to 1869, depicting the

execution by firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are u ...

Emperor Maximilian I Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself Ele ...

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 London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

in 1992–1993 and at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

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 Lud ...

and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. After a career in the Austrian Navy, he was encouraged by

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

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 Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec, he was the first indigenous pre ...

throughout his reign, and the Empire collapsed after Napoleon withdrew French troops in 1866. Maximilian was captured on

Cerro de las Campanas The ''Cerro de las Campanas'' ("Hill of the Bells") is a hill and national park located in Querétaro City, Mexico. It is most noteworthy as the place where Emperor Maximilian I and Generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía were executed, defi ...

in May 1867, sentenced to death at a court martial, and executed, together with Generals

Miguel Miramón Miguel Gregorio de la Luz Atenógenes Miramón y Tarelo, known as Miguel Miramón, (29 September 1831 – 19 June 1867) was a Mexican conservative general who became president of Mexico at the age of twenty seven during the Reform War, serving ...

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 Léon Gambetta (; 2 April 1838 – 31 December 1882) was a French lawyer and republican politician who proclaimed the French Third Republic in 1870 and played a prominent role in its early government. Early life and education Born in Cahors, Ga ...

, but was inspired to start work on a painting, heavily influenced by

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

's ''

The Third of May 1808 ''The Third of May 1808'' (also known as or , or )The Museo del Prado entitles the work El 3 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid: los fusilamientos en la montaña del Príncipe Pío'' is a painting completed in 1814 by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, ...

''. 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 thos ...

. 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 The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

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 Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Printmaking, prints ...

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 Curr ...

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 The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

. 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 Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropol ...

. 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 A coup de grâce (; 'blow of mercy') is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. It may be a mercy killing of mortally wounded civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent. ...

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.Tinterow, Gary and Lacambre, Geneviève (2003)
''Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting''
p. 503.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

The Mannheim and Boston versions were exhibited together at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

in 1905. The Mannheim version was acquired by the Kunsthalle Mannheim in 1910 after it had been exhibited at the Berliner Secession 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 IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

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