author
Katharine A. (Katharine Augusta) Carl
1865–1938
An American portrait painter and writer, she became widely known for painting Empress Dowager Cixi after an unusual stay at the Qing court in 1903. Her work and writing open a vivid window onto art, travel, and cultural exchange at the turn of the twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
With the Empress Dowager of China
by Katharine A. (Katharine Augusta) Carl
About the author
Born in New Orleans in 1865, Katharine Augusta Carl built an international career as a portrait painter and later wrote about her experiences for a general audience. She studied art in Paris and became known for painting prominent figures in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Her best-known chapter came in 1903, when she spent months in China painting a formal portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi for the St. Louis Exposition. That rare access to the imperial court shaped both her reputation and her later writing, giving her a distinctive place among American artists of her era.
Carl also wrote books drawn from travel and firsthand observation, blending the eye of a painter with the voice of a memoirist. She died in 1938, but she remains especially memorable for the unusual path that carried her from American and European art circles to one of the most famous royal portraits of her time.