#charles iii portrait

[is-the-king-dead-yet]

The thing is that the Charles portrait can be read as total flattery or scathing critique and the two sides of the mouth quality is what makes it work for 2024.

So it's a monarch butterfly for a king, echoing Elizabeth I's portraits with insect symbols in her jewelry, and symbolizing Charles's environmentalist pretensions. The red is from the uniform and it threatens to overwhelm the individual but the face and hands, the most individual parts of a person, stick out in contrast. So it's about the person wanting to be seen behind the institution. Perfect flattery of Charles's put upon self image.

But the butterfly is endangered (like the institution of the monarchy). The red is the blood shed by Empire, which subsumes the individual and defines his significance to the world because it truly is bigger than this man whose ceremonial role is to distract from it. The hands and face contrast because they're grey and they're depicted with all the ravages of age, creased and lined. The king who is supposed to be a symbol of the "rightness" of Empire is just a withered old man who can't distract from the sea of blood. The man who wants to be seen as more than that role is kidding himself because he's submerged in the blood. A perfect critique of who the king is and what a farce his role - and his awkward relationship with that role - is.

I can't quite tell if the painter means this as a subversion of the commission process or if they meant this as a compliment and missed the other reading, seeing through a lens distorted by the belief that nothing could be wrong with a king. But it really makes the painting work for a moment in time where differing perception of reality is so central to politics and where irony really captures attention. Most of us on some level know the monarchy is rotten but press and art and political ritual haven't yet imagined what will replace it. So the monarchy remains as a placeholder for what will come next, sustained by a discourse that is not totally lying about the monarchy's decadence but which makes no definite move against it either.

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

[theroyalsandi]

British Royal Family - A new photograph of the King, Head of the Armed Forces, has been released on Armed Forces Day. The portrait taken by Hugo Burnand at Windsor Castle in November 2023 shows HM wearing his Field Marshal No1 Full Ceremonial Frock Coat with medals, sword and decorations. | June 29, 2024

[creepyolddude1973]

[magnetothemagnificent]

My only two cents about the King Charles portrait.....one of the most distinguishing traits of the Monarch butterfly is that they're toxic and that other animals learn to avoid them. The artist absolutely knew what he was doing.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Jonathan Yeo

King Charles III

2021-2024

[world-of-wales]

Happy Father's Day, Pa ♡

Kensington Palace released a new portrait featuring King Charles and the Prince of Wales, taken in 1984 to mark Father's Day || 16 JUNE 2024

[soft-and-exhausted]

ah yes the slow decay of a blood soaked empire, the fall of it's last head, burning into oblivion, infer- what do you mean hE COMMISSIONED THAT HIMSELF

[charlotte-of-wales]

A new photograph of the King, Head of the Armed Forces, has been released on #ArmedForcesDay. The portrait taken at Windsor Castle in November 2023 shows HM wearing his Field Marshal No1 Full Ceremonial Frock Coat with medals, sword and decorations. © Hugo Burnand/Royal Household

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

[clay-pidgeon]

so like why does it look like one of those disco elysium headmate things

[blueiscoool]

New Official Portrait of King Charles III

The first official painted portrait of King Charles III since his coronation has been unveiled at Buckingham Palace.

The vast oil on canvas shows a larger-than-life King Charles in the uniform of the Welsh Guards.

The vivid red work, measuring about 8ft 6in by 6ft 6in, is by Jonathan Yeo, who has also painted Tony Blair, Sir David Attenborough and Malala Yousafzai.

Queen Camilla is said to have looked at the painting and told Yeo: "Yes, you've got him."

In the new portrait, the King is depicted, sword in hand, with a butterfly landing on his shoulder.

Unveilings are always a little nerve-wracking, both for the sitter and the artist, but particularly when one of them is a King.

Yeo jokes: "If this was seen as treasonous, I could literally pay for it with my head, which would be an appropriate way for a portrait painter to die - to have their head removed!"

In reality, Yeo isn't going to lose his head of course - no executions for a badly received portrait of a monarch, in modern times anyway.

By Katie Razzall.

[sussex-sweetheart]

Can someone please explain to me what the fuck this monstrosity is? Does the artist secretly hate the royals? Is the red supposed to represent the blood on the royal family's hands? What is going on, and who commissioned this person?!

[theroyalsandi]

British Royal Family - New portrait of King Charles III released for use in public buildings, shows him in Windsor Castle’s Grand Corridor, wearing Admiral of the Fleet’s uniform, with insignia from Orders of the Garter, Thistle, Bath, Merit & sash of Royal Victorian Order. Photo taken by Hugo Burnand | January 15, 2024

[thecupsmith]

[world-of-wales]

THE MONARCH AND THE HEIRS

↬ King George V & Queen Mary with their heirs, the the Duke & Duchess of York and Princess Elizabeth of York - 1926

↬ King George VI with his heir, the then Princess Elizabeth of York - 1936

↬ Queen Elizabeth II with her three heirs, The then Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge & Prince George of Cambridge - 2020

↬ King Charles III with his two heirs, The Prince of Wales & Prince George of Wales - 2023