Making History: Manet’s “Execution of Maximilian” from the National Gallery, London

Manet’s fragmentary Execution of Maximilian, on loan from the National Gallery, London, with archival material on the French occupation of Mexico.

The nearly life-size canvas (about 1867–68) shows the 1867 firing-squad execution of Maximilian, the Austrian archduke made emperor of Mexico, with his generals Tomás Mejía and Miguel Miramón; the painting now survives only in pieces. Documents and images lent by the Getty Research Institute trace the French occupation of Mexico in the 1860s and the circulation of pictures of Maximilian and his generals after their deaths.

Full details at nortonsimon.org