The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1868–69), oil on canvas, 252 × 305 cm. Kunsthalle MannheimThe Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867–1868), oil on canvas. National Gallery, LondonThe Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867), oil on canvas, 195.9 × 259.7 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, BostonThe Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867), oil on canvas, 48 × 58 cm. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, CopenhagenPrint of the execution of Maximilian in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico
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, on 19 June 1867.
Manet supported the Republican cause, particularly as represented by Léon Gambetta,[1] 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 painting is signed by Manet in the lower left corner, bearing the date of Maximilian's execution in 1867, not when the work was completed 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 and they were bought by the National Gallery in 1918, then separated again until 1979, and finally combined on one canvas in 1992.[2]
In the Boston version of the painting, the soldiers wear clothes and sombrero of Mexican Republicans. In the final version in Mannheim, "[t]he 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"[3] 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.[4] 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 earlier that year.
Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, c. 1865
General Tomás Mejía, c. 1864
General Miguel Miramón, c. 1860s
Goya's The Third of May 1808
Reconstruction of the execution of Maximilian (right in photograph) Miramón (center) and Mejía (left)
Wilson-Bareau, Juliet, with essays by John House and Douglas Johnson, Manet: The Execution of Maximilian: Painting, Politics and Censorship, London: National Gallery Publications; Princeton University Press, 1992.
Edouard Manet and the Execution of Maximilian, An Exhibition by the Department of Art, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, February 21 through March 22, 1981. (Seven essays by seven different contributors).