The Shirt of the Emperor, Worn during His Execution

François Aubert French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 850

This grisly photograph depicts the bullet-riddled shirt of the Austrian Archduke Maximilian I, who was appointed Emperor of Mexico by Napoleon III in 1864. Maximilian's puppet regime lasted only three years; when the French army withdrew from Mexico in 1867, he was captured, tried, and executed by the nationalist supporters of Benito Juarez. Aubert, a French photographer working in Mexico, photographed Maximilian's corpse and clothing, producing a sensational and somewhat gruesome record of the execution and the politically charged relics of the slain emperor.

The Shirt of the Emperor, Worn during His Execution, François Aubert (French, 1829–1906), Albumen silver print from glass negative

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