FRANÇOIS AUBERT (1829-1906) A rare scene apparently documenting the events surrounding the execution of Emperor Maximilian. Albumen print, the image measuring 6 1/4x8 3/4 inches (15.9x22.2 cm.), with Aubert's signature and notation Mexico in the negative. 1867
Provenance: A European dealer
Austrian Archduke Maximilian I was appointed Emperor of Mexico by Napoleon III in 1864. After the French withdrew in 1867, he was captured in Queretaro, tried, and sentenced to be executed along with his two generals by the nationalist supporters of Benito Juarez. Aubert, a Frenchman who had become Maximilian's official photographer, was not allowed close to the scene. Four other photographs were documented at the time, including Maximilian's prison, the execution squad, and the frock coat and waist coat he was wearing, riddled with bullet holes.
Maximilian and his two generals were supposedly executed on Cerro de las Campanas behind the city of Queretaro. A detailed study of this exceptionally rare photograph shows soldiers from the Republican army spread out through the area and grouped in a semi-circle, perhaps in preparation for the execution. Édouard Manet famously made three paintings of this scene, and may have been familiar with Aubert's photographs, some of which were widely distributed despite the French government's attempt to censor them, for he shows the prisoners lined up against a wall. Other examples of this photograph are located at the Getty Research Institute and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
