Report in La Chronique des arts et de la curiosite.
February 7,1869 (Sunday)

M. Edouard Manet has painted the tragic episode that brought to an end our intervention in Mexico, the "Death of Maximilian." It appears that this lamentable event has still not become accepted history, since M. Edouard Manet has been unofficially informed that his picture, which is in fact excellent, would have every likelihood of being rejected at the next Salon, if he insisted on presenting it. This is strange, but what is even more peculiar is that after M. Edouard Manet executed on a lithographic stone a sketch of this picture and the Depot [Legal] was made by the printer Lemercier, an order was immediately given that this composition should not be put on sale, even though it has no title.