Artist Jonathan Yeo and King Charles III stand in front of the portrait of the monarch as it is unveiled in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace on May 14 in London, England.WPA Pool/Getty Images
King Charles III’s first official portrait was unveiled this week to public criticism over its contemporary take on the British monarch.
The portrait was commissioned to celebrate King Charles’s 50 years as a member of the Drapers’ Company, one of the U.K.’s oldest charitable bodies. Artist Jonathan Yeo said his goal was to highlight “a 21st-century monarchy” but the dramatic backdrop was likened to a “pinkish psychedelic splurge” by Jonathan Jones in The Guardian and a “grisly execution” at the Tower of London by Kate Mansey in The Times.
King Charles himself looked “mildly surprised” as he pulled back the black curtain to reveal the bold portrait, which he last saw in a “half-done state,” but seemed to smile “approvingly,” Yeo shared with BBC.
Portraits of official figures are often subject to criticism and discussion – depending on the artist and direction chosen, they can be lauded or derided. Here are a few recent portraits that have polarized audiences and remained subjects of conversation.
King Charles unveiled the first official portrait of himself since his coronation last year on Tuesday (May 14). Reaction in London was mixed, with the artwork described as "pretty red," "modern" and "ghoulish."
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The Obamas
Former U.S. president Barack Obama stands between painted portraits of himself and former first lady Michelle Obama at the Smithsonian‘s National Portrait Gallery in Washington on Feb. 12, 2018.JIM BOURG/Reuters
Casually seated in a lush green garden, former U.S. president Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait, painted by Kehinde Wiley and unveiled in 2018, was a departure from the portraits of past presidents. Displayed in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, it stirred criticism for being too abstract – and received comparisons to the “Homer Simpson Backing into a Bush” meme.
Meanwhile to many, former first lady Michelle Obama’s face was unrecognizable in her portrait. Brittany Britto claimed in The Baltimore Sun that the grey-scaled painting looked “more like Kerry Washington than Mrs. O” and Holland Cotter declared in The New York Times that it could be “almost anyone’s face, like a model’s face in a fashion spread.” According to the artist, Amy Sherald, the element of mystery was intentional and only “Mickey Mouse” could create work that was universally loved.
The Obama portraits garnered a strong cultural reaction, emblematic of Obama’s presidency, and were also praised for being strikingly unconventional. They were also historic; artists Wiley and Sherald are the first African-American artists to create Smithsonian-commissioned portraits of a former president and first lady.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
A painting of Prince Philip bare-chested with strands of cress sprouting from his right index finger and a blue bottle fly on his left shoulder, is displayed in the home of Robert Pritikin in San Francisco, Calif. on May 26, 2004.Kimberly White/Reuters
“Gadzooks! Why have you given me a great schonk?” That was allegedly Prince Philip’s reaction to seeing a bare-chested, big-nosed portrait of himself painted by notorious contemporary artist Stuart Pearson Wright. In the portrait, titled Homo sapiens, Lepidum sativum and Calliphora vomitoria, Prince Philip is pictured with grey chest hair, a blue bottle fly on his shoulder and a plant growing out of his raised index finger.
Prince Phillip sat for four (fully clothed) one-hour sessions with Wright but the relationship between the artist and subject quickly soured as the painting turned more abstract and with less clothing than appropriate. Initially commissioned by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to celebrate Prince Philip’s 50th anniversary as president, the RSA instead chose to display a second portrait by Wright that showed less skin and an elongated neck.
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill speaks in Westminster Hall on his 80th birthday. In the background is the oil portrait of Sir Winston by Graham Sutherland, which had just been presented to the Prime Minister as a gift from both Houses of Parliament.PA/Reuters
The former British prime minister had a less-than-pleased reaction to his birthday gift, a portrait commissioned by the Houses of Parliament in November, 1954. Churchill found the painting, by Graham Sutherland, deeply unflattering. He even compared the likeness to that of a “down-and-out who has been picked out of the gutter,” as The London Magazine reported.
After being presented to the public, the painting was hidden in his Chartwell home before being incinerated as per his wishes by his secretary.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (now Princess of Wales)
Glasgow-born artist Paul Emsley poses next to his oil painting of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, at the National Portrait Gallery in central London, on Jan. 11, 2013. Emsley's work was the first commissioned portrait of her.Andrew Winning/Reuters
Displayed at the National Portrait Gallery, the Duchess of Cambridge’s official portrait has been described by Charlotte Higgins in The Guardian as vampiric, as if “she has been transformed into something unpleasant from the Twilight franchise” with its pale finish, silvery hair and “undead” eyes that aged Catherine beyond her years. Art critic Mark Hudson found it reminiscent of a “piece of mawkish book illustration” to be found on the cover of a romance novel rather than in a national collection.
However, Catherine, a former art history major, found the portrait “just amazing” and in her likeness, while her husband, Prince William, described it as “absolutely beautiful.”