(Venice 1830–1919 Pula)
The Repatriation of the Body of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico to Trieste on 15 January 1868, signed Giov. Grubas, oil on canvas, 88 x 121 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Italy.

The present lot depicts the aftermath of Emperor Maximilian’s tragic fate: the return of his body on 15 January 1868 to Trieste on board of the frigate Novara. The young Archduke - a brother of Emperor Franz Joseph – along with his wife Charlotte of Belgium, left their home Castle Miramare in Trieste in1864 to embark in an adventure that would cost him his life and Charlotte her sanity.
Originally backed by the government of Napoleon III and the Mexican Conservative Party, Maximilian thought he would be well received by his new subjects. However, his liberal and anti-clerical policies would quickly displease his Mexican allies and leave him isolated in an increasingly hostile territory. When France was forced to remove his troops from Mexico to address the war in Prussia, Maximilian was left without any military support – an opportunity promptly seized by Benito Juárez, who took power in 1866 and finally executed the Emperor 1867. Meanwhile, Charlotte had failed to find support in Europe from the Pope Pius IX and Napoleon III, eventually losing her mind.
Initially, Benito Juarez did not give permission to return Maximilian’s body to Austria, so after a precarious embalming it was abandoned in the residence of Querétaro’s prefect. It was not until an envoy of Emperor Franz Joseph, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, personally travelled to Mexico that Juarez allowed his return. Tragically, by that time his body suffered a series of misfortunes: his beard had been cut and sold, some of his clothes were stolen and its transport proved disastrous – accounts even describe that during a storm it fell into the water. The Emperor was finally able to find his resting place in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna on 18 January 1868.