On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Barricade of General Turr in Via Toledo, Palermo
Gustave Le Gray French
Not on view
Through his daring 1860 campaign to liberate southern Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) became a potent symbol of Italian nationalism and an international celebrity. Le Gray and the novelist Alexandre Dumas both followed the famous Expedition of the Thousand, when Garibaldi set sail from Genoa to Sicily with one thousand supporters, arrived in Marsala, and launched a swift and decisive campaign against Bourbon troops, who were forced to retreat to the mainland. One of the most accomplished photographers of the nineteenth century, Le Gray made a series documenting the resulting “new” ruins of Italy, including shelled buildings in Palermo. In this print, rich in tone and historical import, flags hang above a barricaded street leading toward the royal palace, then occupied by a victorious Garibaldi.
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