Katharine Carl's portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi leaving Beijing on a train

Katharine Carl's portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi leaving Beijing on a train

Collection

Maxwell Family

Identifier

Mx04-070

Notes

University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China reference number: Mx04-070. Cadbury Research Library archive finding number: DA26/2/2/3 (John Preston Maxwell Papers). Katharine Augusta Carl (1865-1938) painted a life-size portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi in 1903, for display at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St Louis World’s Fair) in April-December 1904. The painting was transported from Beijing to Tianjin by train, in an elaborately decorated and specially commissioned carriage, from Tianjin to Shanghai by boat, and from Shanghai to San Francisco by a Pacific Mail steamer. The painting is now held by the Smithsonian Institution (Freer Sackler). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Carl. See also 'The Empress Dowager and the Camera – Photographing Cixi, 1903-1904' by David Hogge: https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/empress_dowager/cx_essay_03.pdf.

Caption in album or on mount

The Empress Dowager's portrait leaving Peking

Location

Beijing

Estimated Date

1904

Material

Paper

Media

Black and white photograph

Repository

Cadbury Research Library (Special Collections), University of Birmingham