An Oriental Beauty

Katherine Augusta Carl was born in Louisiana in 1865 and studied in Paris in the studios of J. P. Laurens and Gustave Courtois. She remained in Paris throughout the remainder of her career and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1890.

She is most famous for her ten-month sojourn in China in 1903, where she was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi for the St. Louis Exposition. She published a book about her experiences and impressions of the Empress, With the Empress Dowager.