Norton Simon Museum Reunites Manet's Maximilian Painting
The National Gallery, London, loans its version of Manet's execution scene for a Pasadena exhibition running through March 2027.
Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Fine Art
The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena presents Édouard Manet's The Execution of Maximilian, on loan from the National Gallery, London, from November 13, 2026, through March 1, 2027. The exhibition is contextualized with archival materials from the Getty Research Institute.
Why it matters
The show brings one of five versions Manet made of the 1867 execution to Pasadena, giving local visitors a rare chance to see the work up close. It also places a politically charged 19th-century painting in dialogue with primary archival sources on its history.
The Norton Simon exhibition is one of five Manet versions of the execution, four paintings and one print, that art historians have documented. The stub does not provide attendance projections or visitor figures for the run.
The players
Norton Simon Museum
A Pasadena art museum known for its collection of European paintings and sculpture, assembled by industrialist Norton Simon.
National Gallery, London
The United Kingdom's national collection of Western European paintings from the 13th to the 19th century, which lent the painting for the exhibition.
Getty Research Institute
The research arm of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles, which supplies archival materials contextualizing the exhibition.
Édouard Manet
A 19th-century French painter often regarded as a foundational figure of modernism, whose work challenged academic conventions.
The details
The painting was cropped by Manet, and after his death in 1883 his heirs cut up the remaining composition and sold the pieces separately. Edgar Degas later acquired the fragments and reunited them on a single canvas, which the National Gallery bought at Degas's studio sale in 1918.
Timeline
1867: Maximilian is executed in Mexico by forces loyal to Juárez.
c. 1867-68: Manet creates the painting.
1883: Manet dies, and his heirs cut up and sell the composition.
1918: The National Gallery acquires the reconstituted painting at Degas's studio sale.
November 13, 2026 - March 1, 2027: The painting is on view at the Norton Simon Museum.
Industry Dynamics
The loan reflects how major museums increasingly share works across borders to build exhibitions around a single painting's history. Manet was denied the chance to exhibit his versions of the execution in France during his lifetime, and this loan places a fragmented, reassembled version of that subject before a West Coast audience more than a century later.
The painting is on view at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena from November 13, 2026, through March 1, 2027, giving visitors a limited window to see it in person. The exhibition is part of the museum's regular display, so the stub does not indicate any separate ticket requirement beyond standard museum access.
The takeaway
The painting's history, cut apart after Manet's death and reassembled by Degas, shows how a single artwork can outlast the circumstances of its making. Visitors seeing it in Pasadena can compare the composition with the context the archival materials provide.
Further reading
For more on the exhibition's historical context, explore the Fine Art coverage on Wisevoter.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Artdaily.
