Civil War
Édouard Manet · 1871/73 · Art Institute of Chicago
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From the museum
Édouard Manet drew on his painting The Dead Toreador (1864; National Gallery of Art) for this print, transforming its context from a morbid twist on a festive Spanish tauromaquia to the crisis in France’s short-lived Second Empire (1852–70). The tumultuous years 1870–71 marked the humiliating defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war, the rise and suppression of the revolutionary Paris Commune, and the dawn of the Third Republic. In this print, an unidentified soldier lies behind a Parisian street barricade. A glimpse of a pin-striped civilian pant leg at the lower right hints at the encroachment of violence on everyday life.
The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Details
- Maker
- Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883), printed by Lemercier et Compagnie (French, 19th century)
- Date
- 1871/73
- Medium
- Lithograph in black, with scraping, on ivory chine with red and blue fibers laid down on ivory wove paper (chine collé)
- Dimensions
- Image: 39.8 × 50.7 cm (15 11/16 × 20 in.); Primary support: 40 × 51 cm (15 3/4 × 20 1/8 in.); Secondary support: 49 × 60.9 cm (19 5/16 × 24 in.)
- Place of origin
- France
- Held by
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · Not on view
- Credit line
- John H. Wrenn Fund
Image: Art Institute of Chicago, CC0
