#FSEmpresses: Portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi

This time-lapse video captures the installation of American artist Katherine A. Carl’s portrayal of Empress Dowager Cixi. The empress had this larger-than-life portrait (it stands 16 feet tall in the frame) created for display at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. In a strategic diplomatic move, Cixi had this portrait presented to President Theodore Roosevelt. It is now part of the collection at the Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler and is part of the exhibition “Empresses of China’s Forbidden City, 1644-1912” currently on view until June 23, 2019.

慈禧皇太后油画像屏
Empress Dowager Cixi
Katharine A. Carl (1865–1938)
Oil on canvas
Frame: camphor wood
Transfer from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, S2011.16.1-2