MoMA.org | Interactives | Exhibitions | 2006 | Manet and the Execution of Maximilian

Benito Juarez

Incident at a Bullfight was begun in 1862 after Juárez's forces defeated the French at Puebla, an event to which the painting may refer. Manet had struggled with this painting, extensively reworking it before exhibiting it at the Salon of 1864. Later, Manet himself cut off the lower portion of the painting, which resulted in the composition now known as The Dead Toreador.

Reconstruction by Susan Grace Galassi and Ann Hoenigswald of Manet's Incident in a Bullfight (1862-64), from Manet's The Dead Toreador, in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC., and The Bullfight, in The Frick Collection. © The Frick Collection, New York