François AUBERT (1829-1906). The Body of Emperor... Lot 2

François AUBERT (1829-1906). The Body of Emperor Maximilian 1st of Mexico, 1867. Albumen print from a collodion glass negative, mounted on card. Handwritten annotations and collection stamp on verso of mount. 23 × 17 cm. A similar print is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York. On June 19, 1867, Emperor Maximilian was shot by the Juarist government. Photographer to the Mexican imperial court, François Aubert documented the event in an astonishing way, predating the notions of reportage and photojournalism by several decades. Since it was not (yet) technically possible to capture bodies in motion, he took portraits of Mexican officers, Maximilian's damaged vest and shirt, the emperor's body and his burial site. In the mid-nineteenth century, photography, mobilized for its ability to attest, fueled the imagination of artists who showed us what had so far eluded the medium. Such was the case with Édouard Manet and his Execution of Maximilian, largely inspired by meticulously assembled photographic documentation.