King Charles is bringing the ‘blood-soaked’ portrait back to the palace for display

Last month, King Charles did a big unveiling at Buckingham Palace. He unveiled his first portrait as king, painted by Jonathan Yeo. Charles sat for Yeo several times over several years – Yeo actually started working on the portrait before Charles became king. The portrait became a huge, international story because it is so bold and interesting. Some said Charles looks like a bloody tampon (thus recalling the infamous “tampon phone call” to Camilla during their affair). Some said Charles was made to look like he’s surrounded by the blood of the British empire. Suddenly, everyone was an art critic! Reportedly, both Charles and Queen Camilla like Yeo’s portrait a lot. So much so that once it’s finished being displayed elsewhere, Charles wants the portrait displayed at Buckingham Palace this summer so that tourists can see it on palace tours.

Bold, contemporary and very red, the first official portrait of the King has ­divided opinion since it was unveiled at Buckingham Palace last month. Jonathan Yeo’s vast oil-on-canvas painting depicts Charles, 75, in his Welsh Guards uniform and holding a sword while a monarch butterfly hovers over his shoulder.

The portrait was commissioned by the Drapers’ Company, the City of London livery company, and is due to hang in Drapers’ Hall in the City after a few weeks at the Philip Mould & Co ­gallery near Buckingham Palace where visitors can view it free.

Quite what the King thought of the vivid artwork, however, was not so well known. Until now, that is. For the King is said to be so pleased with the painting, and the public reaction to it, that there are plans for it to go on display at Buckingham Palace for its summer opening months between July and the end of September.

The public appetite to view the painting is already apparent. In the two weeks that the portrait has been on display, the gallery has received about 8,000 visitors. The mood on one day this week was closer to a coronation street party than the usual gallery hush.

“I think it’s lovely,” Yeo said of the public reaction to the portrait. “Part of the reason the portrait has gone as far and wide as it has, is because of that whole bit of theatrics of the unveiling happening there [at the palace], the King doing it, the palace being visible as a backdrop. It looked great in there so it’s no bad thing that people will be able to see it in that setting.”

In the palace the painting will stand on an easel in a room of its own so that visitors can have an “audience” with the King, The Times understands. Yeo’s portrait will join an all-star artistic cast drawn from the Royal Collection, including works by Canaletto, Rubens and Van Dyck.

At the Philip Mould & Co gallery, which is free to enter, visitors were standing three-deep. Mothers and daughters out for a day’s shopping posed for photos. Some held up babies. One ­lady had come from Lagos. “We have been overwhelmed by the numbers,” Philip Mould, the gallery’s owner, said. “Everyone from parents with their young children and tourists from around the world to clergy, diplomats, senior politicians and other members of the royal family have come in. It has become abundantly clear, ­listening to visitors, how surprised they are when they encounter it — something to do with its giant scale, and how the strokes and glazes in the controversial red background, often blurrily simplified in photographs, are more nuanced and affecting.”

[From The Times]

There are several reasons why (I believe) Charles likes the painting this much. For one, it’s simply a striking, interesting painting and people clearly want to look at Yeo’s work. Secondly, Charles has taken it as a compliment – the portrait shaved a few years off of Charles’s face, but otherwise, it’s a good likeness and Charles is flattered. The third reason why Charles wants the painting displaying in the palace is to make money – he’s been trying to bring more tourists to all of the royal properties, and he must have heard that the peasants were viewing the portrait for free and he was like “no, they must pay to see the portrait on a palace tour!!”

Also: a few days ago, activists defaced this portrait.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Artist Jonathan Yeo, at the unveiling of artist Jonathan Yeo’s portrait of the King, in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace, London. The portrait was commissioned in 2020 to celebrate the then Prince of Wales’s 50 years as a member of The Drapers’ Company in 2022. The artwork depicts the King wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975. The canvas size – approximately 8.5 by 6.5 feet when framed – was carefully considered to fit within the architecture of Drapers’ Hall and the context of the paintings it will eventually hang alongside Featuring: Jonathan Yeo Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 May 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY** King Charles III at the unveiling of artist Jonathan Yeo’s portrait of the King, in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace, London. The portrait was commissioned in 2020 to celebrate the then Prince of Wales’s 50 years as a member of The Drapers’ Company in 2022. The artwork depicts the King wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975. The canvas size – approximately 8.5 by 6.5 feet when framed – was carefully considered to fit within the architecture of Drapers’ Hall and the context of the paintings it will eventually hang alongside Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 May 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**

Artist Jonathan Yeo and King Charles III at the unveiling of Yeo’s portrait of the King, in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace, London. The portrait was commissioned in 2020 to celebrate the then Prince of Wales’s 50 years as a member of The Drapers’ Company in 2022. The artwork depicts the King wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975. The canvas size – approximately 8.5 by 6.5 feet when framed – was carefully considered to fit within the architecture of Drapers’ Hall and the context of the paintings it will eventually hang alongside Featuring: Jonathan Yeo, King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 May 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY** Artist Jonathan Yeo and King Charles III at the unveiling of Yeo’s portrait of the King, in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace, London. The portrait was commissioned in 2020 to celebrate the then Prince of Wales’s 50 years as a member of The Drapers’ Company in 2022. The artwork depicts the King wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975. The canvas size – approximately 8.5 by 6.5 feet when framed – was carefully considered to fit within the architecture of Drapers’ Hall and the context of the paintings it will eventually hang alongside Featuring: Jonathan Yeo, King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 May 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**