ROBE INFORMELLE EN KESI A FOND TURQUOISE DANS LE STYLE DE L'IMPERATRICE DOUAIRIERE CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, FIN DU XIXEME SIECLE La robe est à décor tissé de papillons et fleurs dont des narcisses et des prunus, en réserve sur fond turquoise pale. Le col, les bords et les poignets reprenant le même décor sur fond noir soulignés d'une ganse à fond violet ornée de dragons et autres animaux fabuleux. Hauteur: 136 cm. (53 ? in.) ; Largeur: 177 cm. (69 5/8 in.)
Offered by the Empress Cixi to the grand-father of the present owner in Beijing in 1901, thence by descent in the family.
This semi-formal unofficial robe can be associated with the private court of the Dowager Empress, Cixi (1835-1908). Whether made to be worn by Cixi herself or by one of her many ladies in waiting, it reflects the refinements of a centuries-old imperial tradition where clothing and a rich variety of accoutrement were regarded as absolutely necessary to maintain the proper hierarchical order in society.
A similar robe, also with flowers and butterflies on a turquoise-green kesi ground, is in The Minneapolis Institute of Art, illustrated in Imperial Silks, Ch'ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, 2000, pp. 484-85, no. 199.