The King has a new portrait

[YaMuvva]

Maybe it’s because I know nothing about art but my initials thoughts are…”Huh”

From the artist:
"It was a privilege and pleasure to have been commissioned by The Drapers' Company to paint this portrait of His Majesty The King, the first to be unveiled since his Coronation. When I started this project, His Majesty The King was still His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, and much like the butterfly I've painted hovering over his shoulder, this portrait has evolved as the subject's role in our public life has transformed. I do my best to capture the life experiences and humanity etched into any individual sitter's face, and I hope that is what I have achieved in this portrait. To try and capture that for His Majesty The King, who occupies such a unique role, was both a tremendous professional challenge, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed and am immensely grateful for."

I agree that this is what he said: And it was a gross invasion of privacy. The media did not have to print it either. They held it back for mnths waiting for the moment it would have the greatest impact I guess. It was not in ‘the public has a right to know this’ category.

Unfortunately it was also funny. ( 1990s funny - humour changes). I want to be close to you always is lovely:

I think I may about to be the party pooper here.
I'm a portrait artist and I follow what other portrait artists are doing.
Some years ago I completed a BA in Fine Art as a mature student - I mention this not to brag or put myself forward as an expert, (far from it), but because I was encouraged and able to discover and learn about many, many wonderful artists I would otherwise never have found out about.
Jonathan Yeo has become one of the most successful portrait artists working today. And that is a far from easy thing to do in this ultra-competitive field. His father is the ex-Tory MP Tim Yeo, which can't have been a disadvantage when starting out. But his style is unique and unmistakeable in the way he merges and blends his subjects into their backgrounds.
Up until now I have loved his work - he is talent and skill are beyond doubt and his portraits are mesmerising and immediately recognisable.
I just think that in this one of Charles, Yeo has "over-egged" his style and technique. I get the meaning and reasoning behind all "the red", but I just personally feel that in this painting the background has become too dominant in colour and content, and he's overdone it.
So I'm disappointed, but accept I'll be in the minority.
Yeo has been described as the "go-to" artist for those in the public eye.
Fair enough, he's good, but I think, when it comes to public bodies commissioning artists to paint eminent people such as Charles, it would be good to give the opportunity to artists other than Yeo now and then! 🤷‍♀️

I was going to post that but I feared a lynch mob ! I'm sure in her own stoic way the Queen probably didn't care assuming she knew. She rose above it all and didn't need her honour defending - she did it all by herself.

Whose painting was defaced in that Sex Pistols image? Please name the artist. Or was it using a stock picture, which is an entirely different thing to mocking somebody's artistic technique and piece of art overall?

I know, it's fucking delusional.

Well I love music and singing but can't do it myself. So I salute your talent.

I'm sensing some faux outrage here either that or someone is genuinely mad. If it's the latter then you have my sympathy as today I have been kindly taught about mental health.

Any ideas on who this hidden character in the bottom right is/represents?

Haven't RTFT but my first thoughts were that he looks like he's exiting a film set detonation and I'm hoping it's a metaphor for future royal trajectory #TeamGraham

Apart from that what did it cost and who paid?

I just looked up his work, I had heard of him but not really known it well

The Tony Blair painting is pretty good, I reckon he’d be pretty happy with that

I kind of like it, or at least I don’t hate it. In the main it doesn’t really speak to me either way. I guess the only feeling it gives me is a quiet unease that he is just standing there whilst the world burns around him, but maybe I’m projecting my own views of the monarchy onto it lol.

Not at all! It’s been very mixed reviews and probably more agree with you than disagree. That’s why it’s been a really great thread. Reading how each person sees the painting is wonderful. Not personal to anyone.

Love your perspective.

being Irish i'm not thinking of it as anything other than a portrait/piece of art, no expectations of how statesman like it needs to be et cetera, and I think it's absolutely excellent! That one of the queen looking ferocious and snarly is awful! I know the queen would never have said ''were you up allmnight gaming, why is that so shit. do you hate me? But wow that is AWFUL!!

I can't decide if I think it's beautiful or hideous. At first I was not keen but it may be growing on me. I'm still not sure lol.

The BRF are like Queen Mary they don't like paying for anything so I'm guessing us. I remember my dear late mum saying she was notorious for basically nicking stuff after taking a liking to it and she (my mum) slept out all night on the pavement for the 1953 Coronation so she was no republican malcontent.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/11/collector-or-thief-inside-queen-marys-royal-collections

cesarina, I am not an artist but I love something that stands out. I see what you mean about him having over-egged it a little and I'd have been interested to see if he had a few versions held back, where he tried this but on a less exaggerated level. But it manages to be striking and flattering.

Who did that awful portrait of the Queen looking like she'd been stung by a wasp after stubbing her toe. Did that person ever work again

I remember my dear late mum saying she was notorious for basically nicking stuff after taking a liking to it

DM (possibly a similar generation your dear late DM?) told me the enforced hosts to her avaricious majesty would take to hiding the valuables in case she commented that she 'liked' them while focusing the death stare...

Indeed it's in that article I do wonder where the Rolf one is - it can rightly never be shown again.

London antique dealers were to claim that they hid all the bibelots and precious items that they knew might appeal to the Queen when they expected her to visit their premises, for the Queen was prone to take what she wished and they would go without payment. If while visiting in some aristocratic home she sighted an object that had once belonged to the Royal Family, she often would request its return, and the current owner could do nothing else but oblige.

“She had kind of upmarket kleptomania because she would go stay in somebody’s house and she’d be sitting on one of a dozen Sheraton chairs and she’d say, ‘Oo, I do like this chair,’ And you’d be obliged to give her all 12,” royal ancestor Princess Olga Romanoff told the Daily Mail in May. “So people got wise to this, and they’d say, ‘Oh, God, Queen Mary’s coming to stay,’ so they’d put the good stuff in the attic and bring the more rotten stuff down.”

Great art evinces emotion - good and bad, so it's doing it's job!

I love his portrait of Camilla. He is a very talented artist but this one of the King makes me just think of bloodshed.

You are still taking the piss out of it though, aren't you.

@Purplebunnie

Yes of course. I'm so glad you like it too.

Thank you.

It's the one of Catherine that you were saying you're not sure about. I'm not sure, either, about the eyes or the length of the face, but I think the mouth is well done.

@EasternStandard
He's done several of Blair, and yes, they are "pretty good" to put it mildly!
You can see the way Yeo's style has developed and become bolder and more iconic since his first one of Blair to his latest - the latter being one I absolutely love.