Katharine Carl

Katharine Augusta Carl (February 12, 1865 – December 7, 1938) (sometimes spelled ''Katherine Carl'') was an American portrait painter and author. She made paintings of notable and royal people in the United States, Europe and Asia. She spent nine months in China in 1903 painting a portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi for the St. Louis Exposition. On her return to America, she published a book about her experience, titled ''With the Empress Dowager of China''.

Early life

Katharine Augusta Carl was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 12, 1865, the daughter of Francis Augustus Carl, Ph.D., LL.D. and Mary Breadon Carl.
Who's who in New York City and State
'. L.R. Hamersly Company; 1911. p. 146. She had a brother named Francis A. Carl.

Education

Carl graduated with a Master of Arts from the Tennessee State Female College in 1882. She studied art under Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois and William-Adolphe Bouguereau in Paris, and then exhibited her works in the Paris salons.

Career

Overview

Carl painted portraits, including those made in 1892 of Mahomet Ali and Prince El Hadj in Algiers. She made portraits of Paul S. Reinsch and Sir Richard Dame.

Throughout her career, she traveled and painted in Europe and China many times. Carl exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. In London, she was a member of the Lyceum Club and the International Society of Women Painters. She was a member of the Société des Artistes Français of Paris, the International Jury of Fine Arts, and the International Jury of Applied Arts of the St. Louis Exposition.

China and Empress Dowager Cixi

Katharine Carl was contacted by Sarah Pike Conger, the wife of American Ambassador Edwin H. Conger with an offer to come to China in the summer of 1903 to paint a portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi for the Chinese exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine
'. Century Company; 1905. p. 803. She spent a total of nine months in China and painted four portraits of the Empress Dowager, later recording her memories as the only western foreigner to live within the precincts of the Chinese imperial court in its last days in a book that was published in 1906.David Shavit.
The United States in Asia: A Historical Dictionary
'. Greenwood Publishing Group; 1 January 1990. . p. 80–81.

She stayed there under the provision that she did not share information about Forbidden City. The Empress Dowager honored Carl with the Order of the Double Dragon and the Flaming Pearl.

Katharine Carl wrote of her time in China provide a unique and intimate assessment of the Empress Dowager Cixi, in the book ''With the Empress Dowager of China''.Katherine A. Carl.
With The Empress Dowager Of China
'. Kessinger Publishing; 1 May 2004. .
Library of Congress pdf version
To her dismay, the press incorrectly reported that she made unflattering remarks about the Empress.

Carl's brother, Francis, 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".letter no. 1320, ''The I.G. in Peking, II'', ed. by Fairbank et al., Cambridge, Mass., 1975 While in China, she painted portraits of H.E. Tseng, former Lord Chamberlain to the Chinese Emperor, and former president of the Republic of China, Li Yuanhung.

Personal life

She lived in New York City at 51 Washington Square and had a studio in the city.

In her later years she lived on East Seventy Eight Street in New York City. Carl died December 7, 1938 of burns at Lenox Hill Hospital she received when taking a bath at her apartment.''Woman Painter Dies from Scalds.''
New York Times. December 9, 1938.

In popular culture

Katharine Carl was portrayed by Sylvia in the 2006 Chinese television series ''Princess Der Ling''.

Gallery

File:The Portrait of the Qing Dynasty Cixi Imperial Dowager Empress of China by an Imperial Painter 4.PNG, ''Empress Dowager Cixi,'' 1904, was given to President Theodore Roosevelt, who had it added to the Smithsonian Institution collections
File:Court in the Winter Palace.jpg, ''Court in the Winter Place,'' 1904
File:Prince Pu Lun, Francis A. Carl, and Wong Kai Koh at the Chinese Reception at the 1904 World's Fair.png, Prince Pu Lun, Francis A. Carl (Katharine Carl's brother), and Wong Kai Koh at the Chinese Reception at the 1904 World's Fair, where her painting was exhibited.''China's Exhibit at St. Louis.''
New York Times. April 27, 1903. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
File:KateAugustaCarl1905.tif, Kate Augusta Carl and a small dog, from a 1905 publication.
File:Katharine Carl - An Oriental Beauty - made in 19th century.jpg, Katharine Carl, ''An Oriental Beauty,'' made in 19th century

Notes

References

Further reading

* Muriel Molland Jernigan, ''Forbidden City'', New York, Crown Publishers, 1954.
* Lolan Wang Grady, Book Review of ''With the Empress Dowager Of China'' by Katharine Augusta Carl, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Ottawa.

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carl, Katharine
1865 births
1938 deaths
American women painters
19th-century American painters
20th-century American painters
American portrait painters
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
Artists from New Orleans
Writers from New Orleans
Painters from Louisiana
Accidental deaths in New York (state)
20th-century American women artists
19th-century American women artists
American women non-fiction writers