The Taiping Rebellion: The Biography of the Battle Paintings Commissioned by Empress Dowager Cixi

This lecture related to the forgotten story of a remarkable series of battle paintings, works that from its birth out of the world’s bloodiest civil war Taiping Rebellion became one of the grandest art projects ever to be commissioned by the Manchu dynasty. It traced the paintings’ beginnings amidst the post-war restoration efforts of the 1870s and 80s, and going on to explore the changes of commissioning procedures as different views were clashing on how the war should be remembered. It ended with a discussion on the fate of the paintings as a symbol of Empress Dowager’s corrupted government, when Japan defeated Chinese naval forces in 1895, and subsequently western powers occupied Beijing in 1900.

Speaker: Dr. Zhang Hongxing (Senior Curator, Victoria and Albert Museum)
Date: 24 October 2014 (Friday)
Time: 2:00-3:30pm
Venue: Conference Room, 2/F, East Wing, Art Museum, CUHK
Language: English