Berkeley Undergraduate Journal

In 1967, Paris hosted a grand Exposition Universelle. Exhibited in this fanfare were goods from all over the world, technological marvels, and France’s best artists. The Exposition was a chance for France to prove its cultural hegemony. For, at that moment, it was struggling to prove its status as a global power. Napoleon III had conquered Mexico in 1864, establishing the Austrian Archduke Maximilian as the country’s Emperor. Maximilian was essentially a puppet of the French empire, however, and his disposability quickly became clear as the European occupation weakened at the hands of the Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez. Napoleon III, realizing the vulnerability of his troops, withdrew and abandoned Maximilian. At the Exposition’s prize giving ceremony, Napoleon III received the news of his empire’s failure. Juarez had captured Maximilian along with two loyal Mexican military generals, and had publically executed them. As the weeks following the event went by, various accounts and photographs of the execution began to trickle into France’s periodicals, feeding the populace’s outraged imagination. Manet’s Execution of Maximilian attempts to perform many of the same functions as these photographs. The canvas is a curious hybrid of the traditional and the modern. Manet’s Execution of Maximilian is essentially a history painting that attempts to carry the journalistic burden of the photograph.