The Execution of Emperor Maximilian

Manet produced multiple versions of the Execution of Maximilian following the Mexican Emperor's death by firing squad in June 1867 — a political assassination that shocked European liberal opinion and implicitly indicted Napoleon III, who had withdrawn French support. Manet modelled the composition on Goya's Third of May, 1808, and dressed the Mexican soldiers in uniforms almost identical to French army issue — a pointed political comment that caused the lithograph version to be banned. The several painted versions constitute his most sustained engagement with a contemporary political subject.

Manet positions the firing squad at close range to the emperor and his generals, eliminating the atmospheric distance that would have aestheticised the violence. The compressed space and the soldiers' near-mechanical precision — rifles already at the emperor's chest — give the scene its cold documentary quality, reinforced by a brushwork that refuses dramatic flourish.