The first official portrait of King Charles since his coronation was unveiled today Tuesday (14.05.2024) at Buckingham Palace, Britain.
The huge oil painting, the imposing portrait, depicts King Charles in the uniform of the Welsh Guards.
The vivid crimson work, measuring 2.48 meters. by 1.87 m. owned by artist Jonathan Yeo, who has also painted Tony Blair, Sir David Attenborough and Malala Yousafzai.
Camilla, as the BBC writes, is said to have looked at the painting and turned to Yeo and said: “Yes, you’ve got him.”
In the new portrait, the king is depicted with a sword in hand, with a butterfly landing on his shoulder.
Reveals are always a bit stressful, both for the depicted and the artist, but especially when one of them is a king.
Yeo jokes: “If this is considered treason, I could literally pay for it with my head, which would be the proper way for a portrait painter to die – beheaded!”
In fact, Yeo is not going to lose his head of course – there are no executions for a portrait of a monarch that was not well received, in modern times at least.
Luckily, she’s already received a nod of approval from a key royal.
Yeo says that the best judge of a portrait is someone who knows the subject very well, because they have an instant recognition of whether they look familiar.
The king also got a taste of it, says Yeo, in its “half-finished state… He was initially slightly surprised by the bright color, but otherwise seemed to smile approvingly.”
This is a living painting.
The king became colonel of the Welsh Guards in 1975. In the image, the red of the uniform fades into the red background, highlighting the king’s face even more.
Yeo says he wanted the painting to be distinctive and a break with the past. He was aiming for something personal.
“My interest is really in understanding who someone is and trying to capture that on a canvas.”
Yeo decided to use some of the traditions of royal portraiture – the military uniform, the sword – but aimed to achieve something more contemporary, particularly with the deep color and the butterfly.
He says it harkens back to the tradition of official royal portraits, but implies that this is something “from the past and what’s interesting about them is something a little bit different from that”.
“In the history of art, the butterfly symbolizes transformation and rebirth,” he explains, as befits a portrait created for a monarch who has recently ascended the throne.
The butterfly is also a reference to the king’s long-standing interest in the environment, causes he has “championed for most of his life and certainly long before they became a mainstream debate”.
Yeo says it was Charles’ idea after they talked about the opportunity they had to tell a story through the play.
“I said, when the students are going to look at this in 200 years and see a who’s who of monarchs, what evidence can you give them?
Yeo began the portrait when Charles was still Prince of Wales, in June 2021.
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