Photography Dowager Empress Cixi
Photography Dowager Empress Cixi
CC BY-SA 4.0
A black-and-white photograph: portrait of Dowager Empress Cixi, who ruled China formally and informally from 1861 until her death in 1908. The rich and extravagant peacock in the background is accompanied by the inscription “Long Live the Most Reverend Empress and Mother of the Qing Dynasty”.
The photograph is the 320th of 449 photographs of Beijing and its surroundings in the album of Ivan Skušek Jr., purchased during his stay in Beijing (1914–1920). In the handwritten inventory of the album, the photograph is referred to as Kaiserin-Wittwe Tse-Hoi. (DZ, MV)
Place of manufacture: Beijing
Manufacturing technique: black-and-white photograph
Dimensions: length: 8.5 cm, width: 13 cm
Inscription: Daqingguo dangjin shengmu Huang Taihou wan sui wan sui wan sui 大清國當今聖母皇太后萬歲萬歲萬歲
No. of parts: 1
Current owner: Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Date of the last acquisition: 1963
Previous owners and periods of ownership: Ivan Skušek, Jr. and Tsuneko Kondō Kawase - Marija Skušek, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Object condition, handling and damage: bluish discolouration of black colour, trimmed top and bottom edges
Do you have a comment or additional information about the subject?