Did the artist look at the King's portrait and say "hold my beer"

[MrsLeonFarrell]

Tatler has a new portrait, allegedly of the Princess of Wales, on its cover. I know it's been a while but I'm pretty sure most of us remember what she looks like.

Link to BBC article laced with sarcasm.

BBC News - Kate Tatler portrait prompts strong reaction online
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-69049830

I love the title of your post! DH and I still crying with laughter ...

'Resemblance isn't important if an artist is very established and has a huge body of work in a certain style.'

As a long-term watcher of Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year, the artist “missing the likeness” is a common critique of the judges, and generally means the artist doesn’t progress. Because likeness is quite important in a portrait - otherwise it’s not a portrait, is it? It’s just a painting.

So this wasn’t theme winner of a kids drawing competitions?

Yes, I agree.

Kate doesn't even have green/blue eyes. They are hazel green.

Maybe the artist was studying someone else. I see Rumor Willis with blue eyes.

The painter Hannah Uzor said: "All my portraits are made up of layers of a personality, constructed from everything I can find about them."

This is the problem, Catherine is a very private person with no juicy past. There’s nothing to say about her that can be gleaned from publicly available sources, so what the artist has created is shallow and lacking substance.

Her other works are impressive but her bio states her particular interest is in diasporic culture. If those are the stories which inspire her, the Princess of Wales seems an odd commission to accept.

I'm going with the Tatler revenge theory as an outlier or they were so deeply invested in terms of cost when they saw the final product they decided "what the hell" it will be a cause celebre anyway. Which indeed it is. The artist has come out fighting as well she should as she believes in and is invested with her work. It as shame that Picasso is no longer alive he would have had a good "go".

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/royals/artist-behind-dreadful-kate-middleton-32879038

I think it was the wrong artist. The painting is flat, boring and rather bland. Maybe it’s a dig at the sitter?

Artists do bla bla bla about meaning and depth in their work. That’s not always the case (I was at art school… sometimes ‘art’ is just lazy and uninspired.

i assume the artist was chosen by advisers?

That’s so odd about the eyes. She’s emphasising at length that she spent ages making sure the eyes matched the blue-green background. But the eyes in the painting aren’t that colour at all, and nor are Kate’s eyes in photos. What’s she on about?

I do feel for her - no one wants their work publicly dissed, and I’m sure there is some racism involved from some quarters, and of course it would be pretty hard to say “ok fair enough, maybe my style didn’t work for this” or similar. But I’m more baffled than ever after reading her explanation.

Watching the Reel on Tatler's Instagram adds another reason why the painting is so terrible. The canvas she used was absolutely tiny, looks around A3 sized. With a fully standing figure, the head is about the size of a strawberry and trying to paint facial features on that is madness. It's an extremely amateurish mistake to make. All artists know that you work as big as possible, especially if there needs to be detail. Her Sara Bonetta portrait was significantly larger as well. The alternative was to enlarge the portrait so it's just a half-body like the previous portraits of Charles and the Queen. Then the face takes up 30-40% of the canvas and becomes significantly easier to paint.

Either way, Tatler's Instagram is still full of vile comments and they seem to have no intention of responding or moderating it. 99% are negative with many people saying they have cancelled or will not renew subscriptions. Wonder if the shitstorm was worth whatever petty vendetta they had with W&K and how many copies that July issue will actually sell.

This is just awful to read and yes sounds like the artist was set up to fail.

There's a batshit crazy social media royalist pile on going on all over the show , Reddit,X,Instagram and probably other places as well. Which certainly wasn't happening a few months ago. Some of this engagement may be fake, the work of paid for bot farms. It's certainly possible.

Her comments are interesting, she obviously feels she'd did a good job capturing who Catherine is and her expressions. What's strange is that the portrait doesn't really have an expression and saying you painted a blue background because she likes rowing is a bit paint by numbers for a professional artist.

The Charles portrait looked like him and contained elements of his life and interests, the style divided people but no one suggested it was bad or didn't reflect the personality of the sitter.

But part of being an artist is learning and growing and taking feedback and developing your specific style and areas of excellence. Her other work flows and glows, this portrait is stilted and bland. I'm surprised that she doesn't seem willing to reflect on the constructive criticism, maybe it's overwhelming at this point.

Having said that, I do blame Tatler, who would have known that the trolls would come out to play, she is one more person used for clicks.

I don’t know much about this - did Kate sit / meet the artist or did she paint from photos?

Isn't the Cornish naive artist Alfred Wallis regarded as a great now ? Does her work in her own way pass that cultural sniff test ? My dad , god bless him , would have thought they were both rubbish.

Alfred Wallis, though, didn't paint portraits, so hardly comparable.

I just don't 'get' Art these days.

I'm fully expecting to see an installation with Prince William reclining on an unmade bed next - and I'm still not going to get it.

Fair enough I'm out of my depth here - what about this one which is apparently well regarded, which I quite like more than the Kate one which just feels lifeless. My partner and I have considered getting our portrait painted from a photo. I've seen some good ones on our holidays who are very good but often you then see stuff they have done from life and it's rubbish. So it is strange that hers is seemingly weird.

I think it is a commentary on the fact that Kate is no more than a cypher for people to hang their own thoughts and expectations on. She has never done anything or achieved anything save the birth of three children, she appears to have no interests (or none known about), she barely speaks and is incapable of stringing a sensible sentence together in public, her role is to dress up and wave, her photos are airbrushed so she is almost unrecognisable - is this not a commentary on that? She is a flat, boring, image projected to the world without any identifiers save status. Hell, we don’t at the moment know whether she is conscious or in a coma and the public don’t seem to care.

Ouch! But true.

Ouch is right. But not true. Here are things an objective observer would have picked up about Kate:

She played hockey (was captain of the team at her school)
She plays tennis to a good standard
She skis
She plays the piano to a good standard
She enjoys photography
She draws
She keeps bees
She gained two As and B at A level
She has a 2:1 degree in Art History
She has worked as a waitress, a deckhand and an accessories buyer and at her family’s business
She has been openly involved in various charities since she first came into the public eye.
She currently holds a patronage with over 20 organisations, focussed primarily on issues surrounding young children, mental health, sport, addictions and art.
She is a diplomatic representative for the United Kingdom
She is also a wife, and has three primary school aged children.

Maybe Delphigirl would like to share their own CV so we can compare to see if they have ever achieved anything comparable, or have any comparable interests?

She keeps bees 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@HoneyButterPopcorn It was painted from photos. The palace have said they had absolutely nothing to do with it. Although the artist did say somewhere she had actually met the Princess once. But not for a sitting

As far as I know delphigirl isn't living at the expense of the public purse and as such need not be a subject of curious speculation as to her achievements which I'm sure are substantial. I would say modest academic achievements, hobbies and leisure pastimes don't count though.