“The Empress Dowager, Tze Hsi, of China”. Painting by Katharine A. Carl. China, Qing Dynasty, 1903. [4883×7814]

Official artefact title a Wade-Giles supplementary translation of the Chinese sign “大清國慈禧皇太后” (Pinyin: *Da Qing Guo* Cixi *Huangtaihou*).

Currently in the [National Museum of Asian Art of the Smithsonian Institution](https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/collections/search/edanmdm:fsg_S2011.16.1-2a-ap/) (formerly the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery)

As part of her New Policies reform program (1902-1911), Dowager Empress Cixi invited the wives of the foreign diplomatic corps for social gatherings, and upon the request of Mrs. Edwin H. Conger (U.S. Ambassador to the “Government of China”), commissioned an official “propos” portrait for display to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (aka 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair).

The oil on canvas portrait, complete with camphor wood frame, was then shipped to St. Louis, MO, where it served its purpose in the Fine Arts Gallery from June-December 1904. Cixi then gifted the portrait to President Theodore Roosevelt (presented by Qing ambassador Chentung Liang Cheng, KCMG), who then had the item deposited at the Smithsonian.

From 1966-2011, the portrait was on long-term loan to Taiwan (not sure whether it was the National Taiwan Museum or the National Museum of History) where it was on public display. In 2011, the Sackler Gallery acquired the badly deteriorated artefact, but fortunately both portrait & wooden frame were [subsequently restored](https://asia-archive.si.edu/larger-than-life-restoring-the-empress-dowager/).

Zoom in on her fingernails. A friend of mine was traumatized as a child by a bleak Chinese historical drama about the Empress Dowager. Her fingernails were especially terrifying.