Dowager Empress Young Cixi

Painting showing the last important Dowager Empress of China as a young Courtesan. While being ruthless in real life she was chosen as Empress because of her courtly ways as a young woman. In this portrait she is enthroned on a beautiful fan backed wooden chair (which I found near my studio}. This chair inspired me to paint a number of works from Chinese history. Pictures like ‘Dowger…” ‘Tea for Cixi’ and a painting of the “last Emperor of China Puyi” the chair figures prominently in all of the paintings from the year 2022.