Manet and the Execution of Maximilian by John Elderfield

Manet and the Execution of Maximilian by John Elderfield

Regular price
Checking stock...
Regular price
Checking stock...
Proud to be B-Corp

Our business meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. In short, we care about people and the planet.

The feel-good place to buy books
  • Free delivery in Ireland
  • Supporting authors with AuthorSHARE
  • 100% recyclable packaging
  • Proud to be a B Corp – A Business for good
  • Buy-back with Ziffit

Manet and the Execution of Maximilian by John Elderfield

The execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, in 1867, was the subject of a quartet of paintings by the French Impressionist and early Modernist Edouard Manet. These works are rarely shown together, and in fact cannot be seen in their entirety, since one of them exists only in fragments, but the three intact paintings and the surviving elements of the fourth are reproduced in this publication, and will be shown at The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition in the fall of 2006. Maximilian's death was an event of great public interest in France, in part because French policies shared the responsibility for it. A European aristocrat of the Hapsburg family, Maximilian had been installed in 1864 after a trio of European powers, led by Napoleon I of France, mounted an invasion of Mexico to reclaim debts upon which the Mexican government had suspended payment. But Napoleon soon withdrew, abandoning Maximilian to his fate at the hands of a resurgent Mexican army. As news of the execution reached Paris, Manet reacted with a group of works synthesizing the information as it came to him and drawing heavily on an earlier painting inspired by violent political events, Goya's The Third of May. In addition to analyzing and documenting the creation of these works, John Elderfield, in his text, clarifies their historical importance in the context of modern art, and in so doing, offers a capsular history of the place of current events in art.
John Elderfield, a consultant at Gagosian Gallery, is chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he directed numerous celebrated exhibitions, among them Kurt Schwitters, Henri Matisse: A Retrospective, and De Kooning: A Retrospective. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People of the Year; in 2006 he was made Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780870704239
ISBN 10 0870704230
Title Manet and the Execution of Maximilian
Author John Elderfield
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Museum of Modern Art
Year published 2007-01-15
Number of pages 200
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable