Many people say that Cixi is a sinner of history, and if she had not played with power and provoked trouble, perhaps the Great Qing would not have decayed so quickly. All along, people have not been kind to Cixi, and looking around, the evaluation of Cixi is mostly negative. Today we will not talk about Cixi's deeds, but about her strange "portraits."
A foreign painter named Hua Shi Hu Bo once painted two portraits of Cixi, both of which were written by the same person, and both painted the same person, and it is reasonable to say that the characters in the painting should not be too different. But in fact, there are many details in these two paintings that are different, not only the appearance is different, but also the spiritual temperament of the characters is also very different. What's going on? Obviously it is the same person painted by one person, why does such a strange phenomenon occur?
The portrait painted by Hua Shi for Yi Xi, the Prince of Qing, was very exquisite, and Empress Dowager Cixi liked it very much after seeing it, so she ordered someone to invite Hua Shi to Come to China to paint a portrait of herself. On June 12, 1905, the 31st year of Guangxu, Hua Shi met Empress Dowager Cixi in the Xiyuan (i.e., Zhongnanhai) of the Forbidden City. The empress dowager sat on a golden chair, and behind her were a total of 14 eunuchs serving her, two of whom held huge palace fans. Hua Shi praised Empress Dowager Cixi: "Kind and beautiful, showing a firm will, I immediately fell in love with her." Wals then lifted his paintbrush and began his work.
This portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi has caused great controversy in later generations, because there are two different paintings, one painting of Empress Dowager Cixi has a calm demeanor and excellent maintenance, making it difficult to guess the age of Empress Dowager Cixi for a while. The empress dowager Cixi in another painting is not angry with herself, her eyes are shining with energy, exuding the majesty of the royal family, which makes all the viewers of the painting stand in awe, and the Empress Dowager Cixi on this painting can let people see the traces of time, wrinkles, eye bags, and wrinkles undoubtedly reveal that this distinguished woman is no longer young.
Two paintings from the same painter, from the same time, paintings are the same person, why are they so different? Naturally, it is because of the requirements of "Party A". This "Party A" is Empress Dowager Cixi. It is said that when Empress Dowager Cixi and Hua Shi met for the second time, she checked what she looked like in Hua Shi's hands, and she also expressed her dissatisfaction with the shape of her eyebrows, did not want to have shadows in the eyes and nose, and hoped to remove the wrinkles on her face.
After four days of proofing, Hua Shi fought in the studio for two months to complete the drawing. Empress Dowager Cixi, the "party a", asked to open her eyes a little. The revised painting received an answer from Empress Dowager Cixi Gao Leng: "good!" This answer seems simple, but this is the only English that Empress Dowager Cixi knows, which is undoubtedly an affirmation for Hua shi. This is the first painting.