The Execution of Emperor Maximilian [SEP] creator
The Execution of Emperor Maximilian
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. Manet produced three large oil paintings, a smaller oil sketch and a lithograph 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,
Emperor Napoleon III, invaded Mexico. While the French were in Mexico (known as the Second French intervention in Mexico), Emperor Napoleon III helped Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, succeed the throne in 1864. During the Battle of Tacámbaro on 11 April 1865, 300 Belgian Legion soldiers fighting for the Mexican Empire fought against Mexican Republicans (those who fought for President Benito Juárez). Several dozen Belgian soldiers were killed during the battle.
When Emperor Maximilian I faced execution, Belgium instructed its representative, Hoorickx