insideKENT Magazine Issue 22 - January 2014 | Page 33

ARTS

THE NATIONAL GALLERY MASTERPIECE TOUR:

Manet’s ‘The Execution of Maximilian’
Sponsored by Christie’s

+
Becket’s Murder and Images of Political Killing
Murder Of Thomas Becket, JohnOpie

The Execution of Maximilian, Edouard Manet

FRIDAY 17 JANUARY TO
SUNDAY 16 MARCH
SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS ROOM
FREE ADMISSION

Manet’s ‘The Execution of Maximilian’ has been
described as ‘among the most moving and most
tantalising pictures in the National Gallery.’ It
depicts the fatal moment when the Austrian
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, captured by
Mexican revolutionaries, was executed alongside
two of his generals in June 1867, and was painted
as news of the event was reaching France.
Maximilian had been installed by French force as
Emperor of Mexico in 1863, after a multi-national
army ousted the revolutionary Benito Juarez,
who had overthrown the previous Mexican leader.
Maintaining French rule had been costly, however,
and French troops were withdrawn, abandoning
Maximilian to an inevitable fate. Manet painted
the sensational event on a large scale. He dressed
the firing squad in French rather t han Mexican
uniform, thereby implying French responsibility
for Maximilian’s death. The painting was never
exhibited and Manet’s lithograph version was
banned from publication. Cut up after Manet’s
death for easier sale, the painting’s fragments
were bought and reunited by Edgar Degas, and
acquired by the National Gallery at the Degas
sale in March 1918, during the First World War.
The Masterpiece Tour is part of the National
Gallery’s aim to promote the understanding,
knowledge and appreciation of Old Master
paintings to as wide an audience as possible.
This opportunity to bring hugely popular National

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Gallery paintings to the public’s doorstep is being
made possible by the generous support of
Christie’s.
Manet’s ‘Execution of Maximilian’ is being
displayed with contextual material relating to its
development, and with works from Canterbury
Museums’ collections depicting the murder of
Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, notably
John Opie’s painting of about 1793. Like Manet,
Opie used life-size figures in shallow space to
draw the viewer into the action, and limited colours
for dramatic effect. The exhibition and supporting
programme focus on the way in which artists,
including photographers, have created iconic
images that come to define events involving
political killing. Exhibits include prints after paintings
of political executions by Jean-Léon Gérôme
and Paul Delaroche; images of Communard
executions by Manet and James Tissot;
engravings of heretics burned at the stake in
seventeenth century Canterbury; and
photographs by Robert Capa and Eddie Adams
from the Spanish Civil War and Vietnam War.
Particular highlights are four etchings by Francisco
de Goya from the ‘Disasters of War’, which
inspired Manet’s composition.
For more information go to
www.thebeaney.co.uk/manet