Study the past and you may learn something useful about the present - that's the message behind Manet and the Execution of Maximilian at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition features a series of paintings depicting the execution of the French-appointed Emperor of Mexico.
'In 1867, Edouard Manet addressed one of the most controversial political events of his day: the disastrous end of the French intervention in Mexico,' says MoMA director Glenn Lowry. The show features three large versions of the work, as well as a small sketch in oils, and a lithograph. The 1867-1868 painting that normally resides in Britain's National Gallery was damaged in storage in the 1800s and is exhibited in its incomplete form.
There's an early version from 1867 that has the moody and sombre tones of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. The final 1868 version features a more realistic palette and the addition of a crowd of spectators.
The politics behind the work have a contemporary ring. Emperor Maximilian of Mexico was an Austrian Archduke - a member of the Hapsburg family installed by Napoleon III of France. Napoleon was trying to recover unpaid debts from Mexico and keep a European presence there. In 1864, a French expeditionary force expelled Benito Juarez - Mexico's first indigenous elected President - and put Maximilian in power.
But Juarez launched a guerrilla war that gradually gained strength. Napoleon decided he'd made a mistake and withdrew his troops, leaving Maximilian stranded. Maximilian and his Mexican allies were defeated and executed by firing squad on the orders of Juarez. Manet was a republican who abhorred all forms of colonialism and foreign adventurism. He started the painting as soon as news of the execution reached France.
'These works are incredibly powerful, but they're of extraordinary historical importance, too,' says John Elderfield, MoMA's chief curator of painting and sculpture. 'The exhibition joins great works of art with socially relevant forces. Foreign wars aren't just a thing of the 19th century - they're very much with us today.'