Katharine Carl - Journeys To China

Journeys To China

Katharine Carl was commissioned in the summer of 1903 to paint a portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi for the Chinese exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. She spent a total of nine months in China and painted four portraits of the Empress Dowager, later recording her memories as the only foreigner to live within the precincts of the Chinese imperial court in its last days in a book that was published in 1906.

Carl was the sister of Francis A. Carl, who worked for Sir Robert Hart at the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service. She apparently stayed at Hart's house at some point and was described by him as "very breezy - quite a tornado". She later dedicated her book to Hart. While in Peking, Carl made friends with Sarah Pike Conger, the wife of American Ambassador Edwin H. Conger and great admirer of the Empress Dowager. Carl describes the attempts Mrs. Conger made to introduce western ways to the Empress Dowager whenever the opportunity provided itself.

While Katharine Carl was very impressed with the Empress Dowager, the feeling was mutual and the Empress Dowager honoured Carl with the order of Double Dragon, Third Division, and fifteen hundred guineas in recognition of her work. Carl later returned to China to live, and she died there in 1938.