After Édouard Manet’s death, Edgar Degas pieced up an old Manet painting and the result is quite stunning. Support us on Patreon: / thecanvas #arthistory #art #manet #degas #masterpiece
Love the missing fragment in the general's body. In puts in value the bullet's trajectory, literally slicing the canvas, erasing the painting, like death erasing life. Degas kind of unintentionally created a contemporary artwork.
"le coup de GRÂCE": it's ALWAYS the finishing strike. because the victim could still be alive but heavily wounded, the coup de grâce is there to avoid a long and painful agony. which is why it is called "giving grace".
At 5:25, you make a mistake when using a french idiom: It is written "Coup de gras" whereas the correct spelling is "Coup de grâce". It is quite funny because "Coup de gras" would translate into "Fat strike". "Coup de grâce" on the other hand means "last blow" and verbatim "Strike of mercy". Great video though !
Small correction Napoléon the third was emperor of the French not france, it was done like this because to show the love for the people of French , also done by Napoléon the first.
The two guys being shot besides Maximilian are Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía, two conservative Mexican generals allied to Maximilian and the Second Empire. Awesome work with this channel buddy, I'm really digging your approach and commentary. Cheers!
I so agree with your conclusions! when I used to paint my teacher liked to ask to all the students to comment on each and every painting. the question was always: what do you understand and what do you feel in front of this canvas? this always ended in a fierce negotiation between the viewers and the painter, the first ones depicting what they "saw", the second what he/she intended to express. every time my turn came, I just listened, and when asked the question: "but what did you intended to show?" my answer was "it doesn't matter". and most of the time, people saw very much more in my paintings than what I intended to show. so much more!
As a mexican student I remember that the last version of the painting apears on the history book. It was really interesting to know that there are (at least) two previous versions of the painting. The reason why Benito Juárez even tho Maximiliano (that's how you say the name un spanish, I'm not sure of how to write it in english) had similar political ideas, killed him, was because he needed to make a statement to anyone that wanted to get with México again. Maximiliano by the way really fell in love with the country, people, traditions, food, everything, reason why he stayed and while he's being executed he's wearing a sombrero, because he asked for it. The story says that he liked to dress like a charro, so it was a funny contrast of a tall, blonde, thin european guy on a charro suit
New subscriber here, ur explanation of each work of art is what causes me to keep coming back to ur channel. I’m grateful for ur insight and am pleased ur base is growing so quickly. There r hints to ur leanings in life in each one which mostly lead me to believe we would disagree on quite a bit but ur work in these vids also show that ur insights r valuable and will teach thousands of us to derive our own interpretations. Thanks for this and hope u keep this up
Rather than asking you a question I just would like to thank you for fuelling a new found passion for art history specifically. Also when I watch other art history videos I find no interest what so ever. But when I watch your videos I find it really easy to focus and find the interpretation you voice very, very interesting.. once again thank you 😅
Although not intentional, I agree with you. The bits and pieces that make up the greater whole seem as if those were the only moments you remember from a distant memory. The hands, the faces, the solder to deliver the final blow, all remind me of thinking of a traumatic experience from long ago, not just seeing the entire memory, but pieces that would have stuck with the person. A true masterpiece
The second version of the painting in its collage form reminds me of a film in a sense. I can imagine that each individual piece of the painting is a shot from a film, showing the different angles and perspectives of the event and with it being a painting and the pieces being split up, I see each induvial piece as a shot or a cut of a scene in a film depicted though a painting.
This video is a wonderful (though perhaps accidental) championing of sequential art, better known as comic book art. By their very nature, comic books piece together their stories in fragmented panels, not unlike Degas' piecing together the fragments of Manet's painting. An excellent introduction to this form of art is Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics."
This video mentioning 20k subs is 2 months old now. You now have 43k subs while I watch it. So glad to see your channel growing faster, I've been binging this content for a few days. Love it
Your videos are Brilliant. I'm reminded of my first Art History class some 55 years ago. Don't stop your amazing story telling; how do you do it? ...Newk from Kentucky TY
Could you comment on El Greco, please. The piece owned by my childhood museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is so loose, so "impressionistic", it really moves me. It shows a large male figure in the foreground with a hill town, perhaps Toledo, in the right background. I am not finding that exact image online, but have also seen his "Toledo" in a traveling show. I know he has executed many more "tight" renderings, but his looseness and brushiness seems so prescient for the 15 and 1600's. Thanks so much for your videos. I look forward to seeing your vids about the artists in residence. Good Fortune.
Thank you for making the film and posting the video. Could you add the details, including the current locations of these works? Date they were painted, and which museum or gallery has them (or private collection)? References to your video will also be useful: it is educational, but it is missing your source references. Would you consider adding in the description? THANK YOU again (I am a new subscriber). Loli
I find the frame in the bottom left to show human compassion agaist the chaos of political change, the body language combined with the general's face on top implies he chose to look the executioners in the eyes so the emperor didnt have to. I may get a digital copy.
It's somehow like there's a painting by Delacroix suppossingly depicting Chopin playing piano and George Sand standing by him, the work is also just fragments but still fascinating to watch.
I think another great aspect of it, i think, is that it could represent how Napoleon was trying to censor the event or information surrounding it. It is very simiar to what you stated, we don't get to see the "whole picture" because we weren't there like the French people, or Manet. And even then, to restate what you said, if you were there, it would happen so fast that you are only able to focus on certain things of the scene or remember certain things of that scene, so again, not getting the full picture.
Great video, very informative and well edited ! 👍 But it is "coup de grâce" ("merciful hit" , meaning the killing stroke). "Coup de gras" would litteraly mean "a hit of fat" which made me laugh and kind of distracted me from your explanations for a moment 😁. Keep up the great work, you are a true professional ! We need more beautiful informative and artistic content such as yours. Also, in the 90's a French TV series called "palettes" did this kind of thing in great detail, if you speak French it is definitely worth checking out.
I see it a little differently. "The Third of May" depicts the slaughter of Spanish peasants by occupying French soldiers, in reprisal for the events of the previous day. It is almost the exact opposite of "The Execution," Manet's depiction of the death of a monarch at the hands of the people he sought to rule. Goya's painting suggests shame at the killing of groups of people the soldiers are conquering - it is done in the night, the soldiers faces are averted, the central figure in the murder is brightly lit - arms spread wide, while the priest next to him, also about to die in the volley of fire, prays. In "The Execution," the soldiers are the central figures and do not seem to avert their faces from the viewer but instead to focus on their targets. Maximilian has no expression that calls to the viewer. Importantly, I think, the soldier preparing the coup de grace represents that this is a legitimate execution, as his purpose is to end needless suffering if required. The is no such consideration for the victims in "The Third of May;" these are reprisal killings.
This was interessting. I can see Manets last version whenever I feel like. It‘s in the city I live, the Kunsthalle Mannheim. Yes it is a highly political picture and Manet really did not care a Maximilian as a person. The firing squad are dressed as French soldiers. Maximilian is wearing a sombrero, the had cover of a peasant, the emperor would have never worn that. The story: the French emperor kills the republic and the working people. I did not know about the Degas version, I’m sure it got mentioned in the Kunsthalle. I sure forgot about it.
Once I was seated before a great Manet painting of execution of Maximilian, sketching it. Some tall gal entered the quiet gallery and sat next to me, saying nothing. In later times I surmised that maybe she thought museums are a decent place to meet a guy. It was awkward. I kept sketching, since that was what I was doing. Neither of us said a word. I don't necessarily believe in "cheap opportunism", and was never any good anyway at interjecting small talk. To those still reading this, guess what? It ends like all my other stories end! Nothing happened! (Incidentally, I own a copy of that wonderful early Degas self portrait --- the etching).
Twice. What about the uniforms, and the white sashes making a clear capital F? I could be thinking's too hard, but I thought for sure that would have been something brought up as far as an underlying something or other. I adore this channel and it's content, but I think I'll take an aspirin....😀
Hello. Usually I don't have anything to say against your videos, who are wonderfully written and masterfully shot, but this one just has a small problem with your usually admirable knowledge of French: there's no "coup de gras" (FAT blow) but a "coup de GRÂCE" (mercy blow). Sorry, not a very pertinent comment, but you didn't only say it, you also wrote it...
@@ericktellez7632 wouldn't it be silly for a Frenchman to argue in English about the relevance of French with a random user, who could also be a native French speaker, judging by his family name?
Being part of a firing squad for an execution in a time of war is not "comitting a murder". I know it's hard to understand for millenials, but that is one of the points that make civilization understandable. Ho, and on the right side of the Channel, we say "coup de grâce", which means "mercy shot". "Coup de gras" does not mean nothing. Gras, was the name of a reglementary issued french miiltary rifle, named after the engineer who proposed it to the ministry of defence. BUT, The Gras rifle was never used to deliver the "coup de grâce", as it's always an officer's task, performed with a handgun. Gras is "fat", in french, so "coup de gras" seems a bit strange. Just as if you wanted to terminate the prisoner's life through a very calorific diet.
I really really REALLY wish creators on RU-vid would stop misusing the word murder. "Murder" is a legal term regarding an unlawful homicide => the killing of a human. As such the 1808 painting probably (I don't know the history of the event) was probably a legally sanctioned execution. As such Henry the VIII murdered no one. His homicides may have been unethical but they were legal. You may disagree with a legal ruling, you may find it immoral, but it was still legal under the process of LAW in the place it took place. The word you should be using is homicide, not murder. Now you know.
Napoléon 3 also wanted to support the Confederacy at the beginning of US Civil War... but he was afraid for economic reasons to alienate the Union... he did hesitate... and then renounced 😀... Napoléon 3 was so bad at international politics that it did cost him his empire. 😀
Another idea: would you be open to considering "Prometheus Bound", by Peter Paul Rubens? It relates to your theme of Manet's accidental masterpiece in that it was added to, rather than cut up. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Bound_(Rubens) Wikipedia shows it at the Philadelphia Museum, but my recollection is that I saw it at the Metropolitan in New York, it could have been at either place. The caption intrigued me. It described that the earlier margins were smaller, and the artist added canvas to 2 sides which is clearly visible with stitching, taking it from a Mannerist piece to Baroque. Thanks again.
