The Barricade

Museum record 6163: The Barricade by Édouard Manet. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For The Barricade (record 6163), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

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Like Civil War (1871/73), this print is set during the street fighting of the Paris Commune. The troops here mirror the firing squad in Édouard Manet’s The Execution of Maximilian (1868–69), a series of paintings that, due to their political intonations, were not exhibited in Paris under Napoleon III. Here though, instead of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico—a Hapsburg installed by Napoleon III and executed at the hands of a resurgent Mexican army—Manet depicted insurgent Parisian Communards executed by the F…