#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.

[cynicalclassicist]

That's one way of looking at it with Charlie's portrait.

i cant get over the king charles portrait. they made that thing to age in his place. that painting hangs in the house of a too-friendly family you find in the post apocalyptic wasteland who inexplicably has a ready supply of fresh meat. if mario jumped into that painting he wouldn't find a charming platformer he would be flayed and hanged like a medieval criminal by an unseeable force in a droning red void. that painting is a color blindness test for people who work in IT but believe in the divine right of kings. that painting is going to weep the sequel to blood. after he dies charles is gonna crawl outta that thing like sadako.

[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.

[royalty-nobility]

'The Royal Family: A Centenary Portrait'

Artist: John Wonnacott (British, 1940-)

Date: 2000

Medium: Oil on canvas on foamboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Sitters:

King Charles III (1948-), King regnant.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021), Consort of Elizabeth II.

Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022), Reigned 1952-2022.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900-2002), Queen of George VI.

Prince Henry, Duke of Sussex (1984-), Duke of Sussex; son of King Charles III.

William, Prince of Wales (1982-)

[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

[vox-anglosphere]

Hip-hip-hooray..76-today!

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

[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

[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?!

[royalty-nobility]

Napoléon III (1808-73), Emperor of the French

Artist: Charles-Édouard Boutibonne (French, 1816–1897)

Date: 1856

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, United Kingdom

Description

The Emperor is wearing the uniform of a General of a division of the French army, with the ribbon and star of the Legion of Honour and badges of the Legion of Honour and the Médaille Militaire. In the distance is a view of Paris. Changes have been made to the position of the neck and hind legs of the horse. Napoleon III was the nephew of Napoleon I and was brought up in exile, coming to power in December 1848 as President of the Second Republic. In 1852 he was proclaimed Emperor, and after a disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, followed by a period of imprisonment, he joined his family in England. Queen Victoria wrote of him in a letter ‘That he is a very extraordinary man, with great qualities there can be no doubt – I might almost say a mysterious man… with a power of fascination, the effect of which upon all those who become more intimately acquainted with him is most sensibly felt’.

[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