Empresses of China's Forbidden City

FAIN: GI-259245-18

Peabody Essex Museum, Inc. (Salem, MA 01970-3726)
Lynda Roscoe Hartigan (Project Director: August 2017 to November 2021)

Implementation of the installation of a 10,000-square-foot-exhibition exploring the role of empresses in China’s Qing Dynasty (1644–1912).

Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Freer|Sackler), and the Palace Museum, Beijing, The Last Empresses of China is the first international exhibition to explore the role of empresses in shaping China’s Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Empresses exercised significant power in this male-dominated hierarchical society, even when it was officially denied them. Featuring approximately 150 objects, many loaned for the first time, the exhibition offers a dramatic view of empresses’ lives, providing visitors with an understanding of the roles they played in court politics, art, and religion. Timed to mark the fortieth anniversary of the normalization of US-China relations, Last Empresses will be presented at PEM, August 18, 2018 to February 10, 2019, and at the Freer|Sackler, March 30 to June 23, 2019.

Associated Products

Empresses of China's Forbidden City, 1644-1912 (Catalog)
Title: Empresses of China's Forbidden City, 1644-1912
Author: Daisy Yiyou Wang
Author: Jan Stuart
Author: Lin Shu
Author: Luk Yu-ping
Author: Ying-chen Peng
Author: Evelyn S. Rawski
Author: Ren Wanping
Abstract: Empresses in the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) played an influential role in the imperial court and the cosompolitan culture of their time. Offering compelling insights into the material culture, activities, and living spaces of Qing empresses, this book features more than one hundred spectacular works of art from the Palace Museum in Beijing that bring the splendor of the Qing court to life. A series of insightful essays and entries examines the fascinating ways that key imperial women engaged with art, religion and politics. This unprecedented exploration of the Qing court from the perspective of its imperial women is an important contribution to our understanding of Chinese art and history.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://worldcat.org
Catalog Type: Exhibition Catalog
Publisher: Peabody Essex Museum

Empresses of China's Forbidden City (Exhibition)
Title: Empresses of China's Forbidden City
Curator: Daisy Yiyou Wang
Curator: Jan Stuart
Abstract: Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Freer|Sackler), and the Palace Museum, Beijing, Empresses of China’s Forbidden City is the first international exhibition to explore the role of empresses in shaping China’s Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Empresses exercised significant power in this male-dominated hierarchical society, even when it was officially denied them. Featuring approximately 150 objects, many loaned for the first time, the exhibition offers a dramatic view of empresses’ lives, providing visitors with an understanding of the roles they played in court politics, art, and religion. Timed to mark the fortieth anniversary of the normalization of US-China relations, Last Empresses will be presented at PEM, August 18, 2018 to February 10, 2019, and at the Freer|Sackler, March 30 to June 23, 2019.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/empresses-of-chinas-forbidden-city
Primary URL Description: Peabody Essex Museum website
Secondary URL: https://www.freersackler.si.edu/exhibition/empresses-of-chinas-forbidden-city-1644-1912/
Secondary URL Description: Freer|Sackler website

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