With the Empress Dowager of China

In 1903 the American painter Katharine Carl was invited inside the Forbidden City to paint Empress Dowager Cixi, and she stayed on at the Qing court for the better part of a year. This memoir records what she saw there: the rituals of a closed imperial household, the gardens and pavilions, the ladies in waiting and eunuchs, and above all the aging ruler herself, whom Western newspapers had cast as a scheming tyrant. Carl offers a warmer and more curious portrait, attentive to manners, dress, and daily routine rather than palace intrigue. Written soon after she left China and published in 1905, it remains a rare firsthand look at Cixi’s court from an outsider granted unusual access. Free PDF and EPUB.