Our Lady of China [Nostra Domina de Sina 中華大聖母] orig. Our Lady of Donglü 東閭聖母 /  Fan Yinru 范殷儒 [alt. 范應儒], ca. 1870-?

N.B. This item will be undergoing restoration and reframing from Sept. 3, 2024-Dec. 2024 (estimated).

The following evaluation and report on this painting was completed by Prof. William H. Ma, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Art History, School of Art, College of Art + Design, Louisiana State University:

Originally kept in the sacristy of the Saint Ignatius Church on the campus of the University of San Francisco, the painting Our Lady of China was relocated to the new Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College in 2022. 

As one of the earliest surviving iterations of this well-known Marian image, it was made specifically for the Chinese Catholic community around the world.  Versions of the icon were and continue to be circulated as prayer cards, statues, and other sacred images.[1]  The same image is worshipped on the altar of the Cathedral of Our Lady of China in Tainan, Taiwan, and variations are found in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. and at the Beitang Cathedral in Beijing.  The origin and propagation of the image have been the subject of many Catholic publications since the painting’s inception in the early twentieth century, and recently it has been the subject of several academic studies.[2]  The renewed interest was due in part, to the image’s connections to the infamous Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908). 

The origin of the Marian image was intimately associated with the Boxer Uprising.  An anti-foreign grassroots movement largely composed of desperate Chinese peasants, the Uprising targeted Christian churches throughout northern China.  The miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary was said to have protected the church and the lives of Chinese parishioners at the village of Donglu.  As a gesture of thanksgiving, the Lazarian missionary René Flament wanted a “beautiful painting of the Holy Virgin” for the newly repaired altar at the church.[3]  His superiors from the nearby city of Baoding suggested the painting workshop at Tushanwan in Shanghai as the place to paint a new image of the Virgin Mary and Child, which would become Our Lady of Donglu.[4] 

[1] See for example, “Our Lady of China,” The Cardinal Kung Foundation. http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/pm/PMourladyofchina.php.

[2] At least three articles published in Catholic magazines discuss the Marian image: “Notre-Dame de Chine,” Le Bulletin Catholique de Pékin 141 (May 1925), “Notre-Dame de Chine” Le Bulletin Catholique de Pékin 161 (January 1927), and J. de Lapparent, S. J., “Correspondance et Renseignements: N. D. de Chine – Regina Sinarum,” Bulletin Catholique de Pékin (1941).  For more recent articles, see Jean-Paul Wiest. "Marian Devotion and the Development of a Chinese Christian Art during the Last 150 Years," in Jidu zongjiao yu Jindai Zhongguo基督宗教与近代中国 Multi-aspect Studies on Christianity in Modern China, edited by GU Weiying 古伟瀛 and ZHAO Xiaoyang赵晓阳 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2011): 187-221; Jeremy Clarke, S.J., “Our Lady of China, Marian Devotion and the Jesuits,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 41/3 (Autumn 2009): 1-47; and the chapter “Our Lady of Donglu” in his book The Virgin Mary and Catholic Identities in Chinese History (Hong Kong University Press, 2013). 

[3] “Notre-Dame de Chine,” Bulletin Catholique de Pèkin 141(?) (May 1925): 172.

[4] “Notre-Dame de Chine,” Le Bulletin Catholique de Pèkin 141(?) (May 1925): 172.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Founded in the late 1840s, Tushanwan 土山灣 (also written as T’ou-sé-wé or variations of it), the art and craft workshops were part of the larger Catholic community of Xujiahui 徐家匯 (Zikawei) west of Shanghai.  At its height, there were more than 200 Chinese orphaned boys and 100 adults being trained and working at the different workshops, which included printing, painting, shoemaking, metalwork, and woodcarving.[1]  Both the painting and printing workshops at Tushanwan had become well-known throughout Shanghai and Catholic communities around the world by the early twentieth century, excelling in religious and secular products.  It is unsurprising that Tushanwan was chosen to fulfill this important commission. 

The painting drew inspiration from the Virgin of the Host by the French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and the Infant Jesus of Prague, but the most noticeable model came from an unlikely source – a photograph of the Empress Dowager Cixi.  Though blamed for her support of the Boxer Uprising, she was still the most powerful figure in the last years of the Qing dynasty in China.  To rescue the damages inflicted on her reputation during the Boxer Uprising, she launched a publicity campaign during the first decade of the twentieth century, making her images publicly available by distributing her photographic likeness and sending her portrait to the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.  Tushanwan painters appropriated one of these photographs as a model for Our Lady of Donglu.  They kept her postures and costumes, replaced her head, and added the Christ child.  While most of the traditional Chinese auspicious symbols and motifs on the costume remained, some were substituted with ones important for Catholicism.  For example, the character for longevity (shou 壽), stylized into a medallion pattern, appears as IHS.  By replicating the visual language of Qing imperial authority, the artists translated European concept of royalty (as in the Queen of Heaven) into a form better suited for a Chinese audience.

This hybrid Chinese Marian image appeared during a time when the Catholic Church was moving toward greater indigenization in its missionary efforts.  When the first plenary council of the Catholic Church in China was held in Shanghai in 1924, Delegate Apostolic Celso Costantini (1873-1958) visited the Tushanwan workshops.  He singled out Our Lady of Donglu among several images of the Holy Mother to be designated as the “Notre Dame de China.”[2]  Soon after, prints of the painting were made, each with the title “Zhonghua shengmu 中華聖母,” or Our Lady of China.  Our Lady of Donglu was thus transformed into Our Lady of China.  In 1941, Pope Pius XII dedicated a feast day for Our Lady of China on the Catholic liturgical calendar - the same day as Mother’s Day.[3] 

Though variations and reinterpretations of this iconic painting abound, only a small number of the original paintings from Tushanwan are extant.  The Chinese painter Fan Yinru 范殷儒 (or 范應儒, c. 1870 - ?) was tasked with the Donglu commission when it arrived at the Tushanwan painting workshop.  Having been trained at Tushanwan starting at a young age, Fan was one of the more seasoned painters employed by the workshop.  Only a handful of Fan’s works survived, and the oil painting Our Lady of China at the Ricci Institute is one. 

[1] William Ma, “The Tushanwan Pagoda Models,” in A Collection of Pagodas: 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Mee-Seen Loong Fine Art LLC (2014), 8.

[2] P. J. de Lapparent, S. J., “Correspondance et Renseignements,” 359.

[3] See “Our Lady of China,” The Cardinal Kung Foundation.  http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/pm/PMourladyofchina.php.

His signature can be found in the lower-right corner in red, hidden in the pattern of the red floral carpet: “Wei-Yn(?)-Zu,” a French transliteration of Fan’s name in Shanghainese.[1]  Below his signature is “T. S. W.,” or T’ou-sé-wé (Tushanwan).

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is also one of the earliest paintings of Our Lady of Donglu/China.  The original painting Our Lady of Donglu arrived at the Church of Donglu in 1909 and it is now lost.  To the author’s knowledge, there are two oil paintings and one wood pyrography of Our Lady of Donglu/China from the early twentieth century.  The pyrography is in a private collection in China.  One of the two paintings is in the collection of the Vatican.  Sent by Tushanwan for the 1925 Vatican Mission Exposition, the date 1924 and “T.S.W.” are inscribed on the painting.  The Ricci Institute painting bears a close resemblance to the Vatican painting. It is unclear how Ricci Institute painting first arrived at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco, but one Chinese scholar has made the intriguing suggestion that it was part of the Tushanwan exhibition at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, where a spacious area was reserved for the spectacular woodworks from Tushanwan at the Palace of Education.[2]  Since many items from the exhibition found homes in the Bay Area, including St. Ignatius Church, it is plausible this painting arrived in San Francisco at that time.[3]  

[1] Both variations of his name, either with 殷 or 應, are pronounced the same way in Shanghainese.  I thank Zhang Xiaoyi 张晓依 for her assistance on pronunciation and translation. 

[2] ZHANG, Xiaoyi  张晓依. “Tushanwan 《Zhonghua shengmu xiang》 canzhan Banama Taipingyang shibohui beihou de gushi 土山湾《中华圣母像》参展巴拿马太平洋世博会背后的故事.” Xuhui wenmai 徐汇文脉2 (2014): 58-67.

[3] All the identified items from Tushanwan exhibited at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition were relocated from St. Ignatius Church to the new home of the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College in 2022.  They include a large hutch, two small corner cabinets, a teak storage chest, and Our Lady of China painting.