Tatler Magazine's commissioned portrait of Catherine, Princess of Wales, has drawn much criticism.
Unveiled a week after King Charles III's similarly-criticized official portrait by Jonathan Yeo, the Princess of Wales's painting was commissioned for the magazine's July 2024 cover. British-Zambian artist Hannah Uzor depicted the future queen in the white gown and tiara that she wore at Charles III's first state banquet as king, and set against a turquoise background meant, according to Uzor, to complement her eyes. She describes Catherine as having "really risen up to her role," and that "she carries herself with such dignity, elegance and grace."
Catherine did not sit for the portrait, having withdrawn from public life since the announcement of her cancer treatment last March. Instead, Uzor studied hundreds of the Princess's photographs. She told Tatler's Helen Rosslyn: "When you can't meet the sitter in person, you have to look at everything you can find and piece together the subtle human moments revealed in different photographs. Do they have a particular way of standing or holding their head or hands? Do they have a recurrent gesture?" She adds: "All my portraits are made up of layers of a personality, constructed from everything I can find about them."
Despite that, Uzor's painting has earned much criticism from various circles, many saying the portrait bears no resemblance to its subject. Alastaire Sooke, chief art critic of the Daily Telegraph, said: "Has there been a flatter, more lifeless royal portrait in living memory?"
Former BBC Royal Correspondent Michael Cole deemed the painting "unhelpful" in light of the Princess' cancer treatment, and likened it to Edvard Munch's The Scream.
There have been more favorable comments defending Uzor's portrait as an interpretation rather than an exact likeness.
The painting is the last in a cover triptych of royal portraits commissioned by Tatler, the first being of Queen Elizabeth II for her Platinum Jubilee in 2022. This was followed by the July 2023 Coronation cover of Charles III.
