Even though the Princess of Wales has been part of the Firm for over twelve years, there really aren’t that many portraits of her. Sure, there were those photos she arranged for her 40th birthday. There was also a painting of Kate and William completely last year, I think? But beyond that, the only major solo portrait done of Kate was in 2013, and it was so bad that even pro-Waity people hated it. The painting was done by Paul Emsley and Emsley took one look at that wiglet and decided to paint Kate as a Victorian ghost, haunting all of Britain. Well, it took ten years, but Kate finally got that portrait shuffled away and out of sight. Per Eden Confidential:
When the first official royal portrait of the Princess of Wales was unveiled to the public a decade ago, Catherine was typically polite, describing Paul Emsley’s efforts as ‘brilliant, absolutely amazing’. The critics were less kind, however, condemning it as ‘ghastly…rotten… an out-and-out disaster’ in one case. Another remarked, acidly: ‘It’s only saving grace is that it’s not by Rolf Harris.’
Now, I can disclose that the work has been consigned to a store room at the National Portrait Gallery, even though it’s the London institution’s only solo painting of our future queen. It can be viewed ‘by prior appointment in our archive’.
Catherine is Royal Patron of the gallery in Trafalgar Square and rumours swirl that she may be secretly pleased the work is no longer on public view.
‘It’s unthinkable that the painting of Her Royal Highness would be removed from public view without consulting her,’ a source tells me. ‘That would be very discourteous. She is our greatly valued patron.’
The oil painting was given a prominent spot from its unveiling in 2013 until 2018. It was then lent for a touring exhibition around the world until the gallery closed for £35million of refurbishment work in 2020.
When the gallery was reopened last month by the Princess amid great fanfare, only two works featuring her image were left on display: a painting, by Jamie Coreth, of her side by side with her husband, Prince William, and a photograph by Paolo Roversi, an Italian fashion snapper, taken to mark her 40th birthday in 2022.
Emsley’s ‘dead-eyed’ painting, which sparked global controversy for making the Princess look older than her years, was not the only prominent royal portrait to disappear when the gallery reopened. Nicky Philipps’s 2010 painting of Princes William and Harry in their Household Cavalry mess uniform was removed from public display.
I honestly haven’t looked at the painting in years, but I do remember the controversy at the time. The painting was never popular – people who had neutral or negative feelings about Kate found the painting creepy, and people who loved Kate thought the painting made her look old and pre-cosmetic surgery. I find it more interesting to think that perhaps Kate didn’t even have anything to do with the portrait being shuffled away. What if this is a larger message that, um, Kate is about to shuffled off somewhere too? There’s something in the air. I still say it’s notable that there are so few official portraits of Kate as well, especially now that she’s Princess of Wales.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
-
- North America Sales Only- London, Britain 7/19/12-Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge Visits Olympic Exhibition at National Portrait Gallery. The Duchess of Cambridge is the Patron of the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition showcase commissioned photographs documenting the preparations for London 2012 Olympics. -PICTURED: Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton) -PHOTO by: Michael Dunlea/Startraksphoto.com -BAR_9326067 Startraks Photo New York, NY For licensing please call 212-414-9464 or email sales@startraksphoto.com Featuring: Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton) Where: London, Britain, United Kingdom When: 19 Jul 2012 Credit: Michael Dunlea/Startraksphoto.com **North America Sales Only**
-
- STRICTLY NO UK SALES. January 11, 2013: The official portrait of HRH Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, London, UK. Artist Paul Emsley had two sittings with the Duchess and was asked by her to portrayed naturally – her natural self – as opposed to her official self. Mr Emsley found the Duchess to be “enormously open and generous and a very warm person” Mandatory Credit: Paul Emsley/Supplied by INFphoto.com Ref: inf-00 IMPORTANT NOTICE: The attached image is supplied by Insight News & Features, Inc. (INF). INF does not own, nor does it claim to own, the copyright or any license to the image. Any fees charged by INF for the image are for the supply of the material and do not, and are not intended to, convey to the user any copyright or license rights. By accepting submission of the image, the end-user accepts the full responsibility of obtaining copyright clearance from the copyright holder prior to publication. Also, the end-user agrees to fully indemnify INF from any and all legal claims, demands or causes of action arising out of, or connected with, the user’s use or publication of the image. If the end-user does not, or cannot, comply with all of the above restrictions, the image should not be used or published by that end-user. |sp| Featuring: Kate Middleton, Catherine Middleton, Catherine Duchess of Cambridge Where: London, United Kingdom When: 11 Jan 2013 Credit: INFphoto.com
-
- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the Percy Community Centre in Bath, to meet some of the young people supported by the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust youth development charity. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Bath, United Kingdom When: 16 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- The Princess of Wales arrives at the Foundling Museum in London, to meet those with lived experience of the care system, as well as with foster carers and adoptive parents to hear about their experiences. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 25 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- The Princess of Wales with Kinship Carers and children during a visit to the Saint Pancras Community Association in Camden, north west London, to meet kinship carers, to hear about their experiences of raising the child of a relative or friend and the vital role they play in raising the next generation. Kinship care is when a child is looked after by their extended family or close friends if they cannot remain with their birth parents. Featuring: Catherine, Princess Of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 25 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- The Princess of Wales, Patron of the V&A, officially opens the Young V&A, Bethnal Green. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 28 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Awwww, I wish they’d leave that one up in a prominent place in the city somewhere. That artist is a true realist painter.
I do think he captured the real Kate!
Absolutely – the iciness, the superiority, the absence of connection to anything or anyone. It’s all there.
@brassyrebel, yes they did boring, bland and unairbrushred, it’s hidden away in the hope that an ACCURATE portrait of her is forgotten about and people can only look on the romantasized ones. Without the wiglets and piles of slap and eye makeup, plus the botox and fillers she is nothing special
Hence her hatred of Megan who uses very light make up yet still looks stunning. Mind you, I think it’s a shame that it hasn’t been donated to a local youth club , I’m sure they could have had hours of fun, playing pin the tiara on the donkey
@Mary Pester — good idea…or they could use it as a dart board.
I came to say he sure left aside the looks, but captured the soul. Finding out someone else said it better.
That painter is a medium. This is the real Catherine Middleton. Poltergeist alert.
Oh they did @ Brassy Rebel!!! That’s why Keen adored it!!! She knows who and what she is!!
Honestly, I’d have qualms about hiding the painting away, if I were Kate, for fear that the next time I saw it, it would start to show my misdeeds like the Portrait of Dorian Gray.
+1
Take away all the photoshop and this is what you get.
He saw her then as she truly is now, I’m sure there’s a Dorian Grey link in there. The better she looks in photos the worse the reality (and the portrait) become?
I wrote my post before seeing yours, but we were thinking along the same literary lines.
And Kate loved it! (according to The Guardian)
The duchess had slipped in with her husband before the gallery opened – mindful of the media scrum at the actual unveiling, which included television crews from Germany and Russia. “It’s just amazing, I thought it was brilliant,” she said.
Coffee spit out moment of the morning: “…a Victorian ghost, haunting all of Britain.”
I never saw this monstrosity before. Now I’m sorry I’ve seen it at all.
I’m with you @ Brassy Rebel!! It’s enough to lose you appetite for certain!!
Creepy! You just know this is one of those portraits where the eyes follow you as you walk by.
Those eyes look like she had one too many gin and tonics before sitting for the portrait.
Crack baby cocktails-a favorite of hers and Pegs!
It looks like one of those AI people who are trying to be human, but cannot quite make it real.
Yeesh! It looks like one of those Halloween lenticular photos that vacillates between a portrait and a horrifying skeleton, depending on the angle.
The death-glare of those ice-cold eyes — Paul Emsley was trying to tell us something.
He certainly was.
He was absolutely prescient 10 years ago. I remember the furor over that painting at the time when Kate was presented as all sweetness and light. Now we know it’s an apt depiction of her true nature.
It’s actually a great likeness. Reminds me of the controversy over Winston Churchill’s portrait by Graham Sutherland.
Yep, this is what she looks like head-on, with her mouth closed. The artist didn’t “fix” all of the features that she tries to alter with poses and Photoshop.
Yes Dee! that was my first thought too.
I think it was a fairly terrible likeness in 2013, back when she seemed happy and before all her Mean Girl-ness came out.
But now? *chef’s kiss* It’s perfect.
She really “grew” into that portrait.
Agree. If you look at the original picture on which it’s based, she looks nothing like she does now, but rather fresh and bemused. He really dug into the future for his vision.
Yes, she 100% grew into the portrait. How fascinating that he was able to capture what she would become. Credit to the artist for this one.
The portrait captured her more youthful looks as they were in 2012. He just portrayed the eyes as dead eyes, which is what she’s always done. The media didn’t want to acknowledge the stately eyed ambition of a woman who worked close to a decade to get the ring.
It captured her spirit.
No, seriously. It looks like her spirit is in there and preparing to unleash all manner of evil on the world. They should use this in the next Ghostbusters film.
Truthfully, the artist got it right.
Looks like her spirit is manipulative, mean, stalkerish, in addition to other similar not so nice character traits.
Seriously, this portrait is inspiring—to horror writers. It bears a creepy resemblance to the madwoman portrait in Ghostbusters 2016—and that ghost murdered all her family’s servants and was locked in the basement for the rest of her life. 😳😳🤣🤣
At the time it came out in 2013 there was still non stop positive coverage of kate so this portrait capturing her calculating self was a shock to the people who believed she was a nice person.
But he captured her essence so the guy is talented.
I’m completely chortling at this review of the painting at the time…yes,he saw what few did at the time.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jan/11/kate-portrait-twilight-paul-emsley
Thats how a painting differs from a photograph . It goes deeper . Paul Emsley is a genius NCboudicca..he captured the meanspirited thin lipped washed out person inside .
So realistic! He should get a Knighthood asap
The first line of that 2013 story would be right in place today:
“Duchess Kate came out of hiding!”
I think the painter got her right. Just look at that conniving look on her face. Can’t have such an accurate looking painting put in public now can we. It screams I chased my dream and I shall be queen ha ha ha. Oh well some dreams go wrong and hers sure is going south fast. Don’t feel sorry for her sometimes you must be careful what you scheme for.
Indeed and we already saw that face once too at her wedding when Will said yes…pure mean girl energy saying to the whole world “I did it, that idiot said yes”.
The painting is pretty accurate. Empty shell of a woman, thin pursed lips, smallish mouth, sagginess here and there, lines under her eyes….
I was going to say that I don’t understand the furor. I get that it’s not a warm or particularly flattering painting, but there’s no denying that it looks EXACTLY like her.
Maybe THAT explains the furor, the fact that it looks exactly like Kate. Maybe the BM was expecting the pictorial equivalent of what they do every day in writing for Kate — flattery.
So they shelved a portrait with Harry in it….and a portrait of Kate. Hmmm, Harry’s been exiled literally and figuratively then. As for kate, does Adelaide cottage count as exile? Or is further exiling to come? However, the photograph of her is still up in the museum so maybe it’s not that deep.
“Daaaaaamn.”
-Dorian Gray’s portrait, probably
LOL
Yes!
Lol, I was just coming to say this. Totally prophetic.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😈😈😈🤣🤣
The artist should be congratulated for capturing the true Kate; the Kate who is cold and scheming, the Kate who waited all those years for William, the Kate who was determined to push Meghan out. I think he is brilliant!
The one Valentine Low described as “tough”? *cough, cough*
The likeness is perfect actually .
The coldness in her eyes and the smirk is the real Kate .
Hard as nails and fake as hell .
Interesting that Scooby Gang and Meh mentioned Kate’s eyes. That is the first thing that creeped me out about this portrait as well, and I zoomed in on them. Considering the isht that CamilToe published for George’s birthday (on him having blue eyes as a toddler, which is untrue), it seems like Kate’s eyes have been made more blue here as well. And Emsley did not paint the brown “dots” of color that her eyes normally have.
I just doublechecked and you’re right. Her eyes have a slight blueishness to them that isn’t there in real life. So weird.
If she didn’t sit for the painting, the blueishness of her eyes could be explained by the photo she sent… it could have been photoshopped 😒, lighting her eyes..
It captured her true essence, I think.
I think the painting was a true depiction of how she looks. The problem is that the royal photographers keep retouching her photos so that the public is not aware of how she actually looks in person. I’d be surprised if she’s not sitting for a new portrait as the Princess of Wales.
Or… divorce/separation is coming, and they’re just getting rid of her picture.
I mean, if this portrait has been up since 2013 then “someone” had to ask for it to be removed…for some reason. If it was to make way for a new POW portrait, it wouldn’t have been so unceremoniously shoved into a closet. It would have been part of a grand public unveiling of a new one (and then probably put in a closet, but still). If a split is truly coming, this is the first real tangible proof that it’s happening.
Emsley is known as a photorealistic painter, that is what he does. Kate sent him source photos, he painted exactly what he saw in the unphotoshopped photos. You can find the source photos online, he painted the reality of what he saw. It as too much reality for Keen.
See, that’s even creepier—he captured her essence from photos. Japanese horror creators would so go to town on this…😳🤣😈😳
I think it’s perfect. It reflects exactly who Katie is…a ghastly, raggedy figure. They should bring it back.
I think he got her exactly right. Yes, she looked older to us but that is what he saw in person 10 years ago – fans just want to see a painting that looks like the photoshop versions of pics.
I’ve just read the comments that she sent him a photo and did not sit in person. My comment still stands, this painting is exactly what he saw.
Was this portrait done before she had rhinoplasty? Or is her nose just routinely slimmed down via photoshop?
Good question. I think it was before veneers, so closed mouth smile.
I don’t know if she’s had a nose job- it still looks slightly bulbous and blunt. It drives the racists completely mad with jealousy that Meghan has such a beautiful nose (and a dazzling smile) and they are constantly accusing her having of plastic surgery.
She had surgery when she was still at school. Nose, chin, eyes reshaped, cheekbones sculpted.
This is her real face https://www.reddit.com/r/VindictaRateCelebs/comments/zzjahs/teenage_kate_middleton_before_university/
I know I read this from somewhere. Can you remind me what happened with that? Didn’t she ask her mother for a make over or something. I can’t remember the specifics.
What’s funny is that she didn’t even sit for this painting. She took some photographs and sent him one. He copied it exactly.
That’s what I remember hearing too. Kate gave him this photo. Maybe she was a snob and refused to sit for him and thought a photo will do for this peasant, and he responded with this awful thing. Kate’s probably glad it’s gone; can you imagine how mad she and CarolE were once they saw the finished product? Shudder.
In some cultures, people believe that a photo captures the very soul of the subject. This artist certainly transferred the essence of that to a painting very well.
Lmao. The art history graduate couldn’t even bother to sit for her portrait. Doesn’t she know that multiple sitting are ESSENTIAL for this genre? A portrait is more than a mere external likeness that can’t be done just by photo, a portrait is also an attempt to capture and convey personality (there need to be a dialogue between artist and sitter) – and it is SUPER disrespectful to the artist. Disrespect and rudeness seem to be recurrent words when it comes to Kate’s behaviour.
But ther is no personality to capture. That is the problem.
I like to bag on Waity too. But the painter is in the wrong here. Dark layers over dark layers over more dark layers. NO ONE is going to look good. A light background, a mid tone blouse. It would have been fine. Not sure why he gave her such a schnoz. It is bulbous, but what he portrayed is beyond. This looks like it is from the Addams Family collection. Again, I don’t care for her, but it was a bit of a slap. However, this needs to remain in people’s minds to help fight all of this revisionist history around her No one liked her until some competition came on the scene. Now it is how she has never put a foot wrong, HAH! Maybe a bare asscheek or 6. And how she is Ze most beautiful woman in ze world. Double HA!
Well, she didn’t bother to actually sit for the portrait but sent a photo. That is just SO disrespectful to the artist – so he answered her disrespect in paint, a permanent public record.
There’s a video of PE on the National Portrait Gallery website in which he details meeting her, photographing her and how he then went about creating the painting. Interestingly, he admits he changed the colour of eyes so as to blend in with the overall blueness of the portrait.
Kate was quoted at the unveiling describing the portrait as amazing.
Maybe there aren’t a lot of portraits of her because she’s not an interesting subject? There’s really nothing inspiring about her.
Portraits cost money – and no one apparently wants to pay for a portrait of her.
She is also going to be a consort at best. There aren’t that many portraits of the queen mother or Philip either. There are more of the Queen because she was Queen regnant and her portraits would get sent to various countries to be placed in government buildings, used for temps etc. No one is putting up portraits of the consorts unless they are dedicated monarchists.
This is a prop at the end of a movie in which a man leaves up the sad faced portrait of his dead wife, and when his new wife moves into the ancestral home she is slowly driven mad and kills everyone who ever wronged the first wife. The last scene reveals the husband alone in a blood-soaked room, recoiling from the portrait whose creepy smile now shows the ghost wife has gotten her revenge.
That is perfect CC!
@CC. Holy smokes I would watch this movie so hard!
I saw the couples portrait of her and William at the gallery recently. It is MUCH more flattering, especially of William. I can understand why it’s still on display there and this has been shuffled off!
Well, isn’t she smug looking.
Tour Guide: Seen here is a portrait of Catherine Middleton, the Princess of Wales. The princess blah blah blah. After that she yadda yadda yadda. The portrait was painted by Paul Emsley and is titled “I Got Mine.”
This was painted in 2013? That artist deserves more credit because he clearly saw into the future.
He painted exactly what he saw. And Kate is getting phased out. They got rid of her picture just like they took Harry’s picture down. And they made sure to mention that in the article…
Wow – talk about Dorian Grey. The painter based this on a photo she picked and yeah he really captured the smug manipulative soul that lives behind those cold cruel eyes.
She looks better in this painting than she does now.
It was and is a God awful portrait and she must have felt humiliated at the unveiling. I love that for her.
There’s something distinctly Dorian Grayish about that portrait. It shows an aging, bitter Kate while she tries desperately to cling to her youth.
@Digital Unicorn — I posted this before I read your comment. Great minds think alike…
I like this painting of Kates and imagine that in person there’s more luminescence, then comes across in the photo.
AnyWho, I’ve always found the removal of the portrait of the two princes to be a more interesting topic . Kind of reminds me of how the Egyptians were carb off the face of a former Faro to a race in from memory..
She looks more like that portrait now than at the time it was painted. The artist saw her true self.
He totally got the essence of K(h)ate in this portrait. As someone mentioned earlier the hauty iciness and feigned attempt at approachability makes this creation. I am guessing that some courtier in KP saw it and probably wanted it softened; so then you get this blurring effect. It’s not fooling anyone.
I love the portrait so much. If it were available to buy as a poster, I’d buy it right now. He captured her SOUL.
My elderly relatives (grand aunts) always say that you grow into the face you deserve. When we were little, they cautioned that a scowl or rage would eventually be permanently etched into the lines of our faces.
With Kate, it’s as though the artist saw her future face and painted it with the insight of a diviner. It’s uncanny how the portrait shows Kate’s utter lack of warm, curiosity, and self-confidence.
The artist painted this from a photograph. I can’t help but wonder if KHate thought she (and probably Ma) were going for a look that was Princess/Queen. They probably thought the photo was perfect, because this is what they wanted to convey to the masses. I believe the artist painted what he saw. The problem isn’t that it’s not representative of KHate. The problem is that he accurately captured what KHate and Ma thought was how a royal princess or queen would look. It’s also why KHate liked the portrait when she saw it.
I thought at the time it was revealed that it was an unflattering portrait, because it made Kate look older than she was at the time and the colour palette made the painting look eerie, even ghostly. I thought the smile was more of a smirk. Now that Kate is apparently a rather mean, inarticulate, and chilly person, the painter seems rather prescient in his interpretation. It would be interesting to see the photo that was submitted for the artist to use. But why wouldn’t Kate have actually posed for her portrait? Even the Queen seemed to spend a lot of time posing in person for her many portraits.
I am no fan of Kate, but I looked up the source picture and it was actually nice and nothing like the portrait. Artist definitely saw into the future on this one.
Jayne, can you give us a link to the source photo?
It looks like it was painted on velvet.
Which works.
I think the artist is technically brilliant. Had he painted a portrait Meghan, he would have captured her genuine kindness, warmth and beauty perfectly.
Unfortunately, this artist’s career suffered as a result of the fallout from this painting. He also had such a horrible time working with Kate and the Middletons that he swore off doing any portraits in the future. When he was initially selected to do the portrait, it was said that this was a portrait painter that does an exceptional job of bringing out the essence of a person in a portrait. Well, he sure did that!
It was said though that, even though Kate picked the photograph off of which the painter worked (and she selected the artist), that she and her mother insisted on seeing the painting while unfinished and were unhappy with it, in particular the nose. They were apparently demanding revisions of his work, repeatedly.
He probably just painted it realistically but they were unhappy with it and wanted a more delicate (less bulbous) nose. You can see in original photos that are clear of the painting that finally the artist just took a big gob of paint and smushed it on the top of the ball of the nose. Clearly not with his usual finesse.
It was also rumored that Kate was not at all happy with the painting, notwithstanding what she may have said in public. You can also see photos of Carol Middleton leaving the gallery after the grand unveiling of the portrait and she looks fit to kill someone. She is mad! As others have said here, the portrait was only ghastly to some and unsuitable for Kate and her mother because he painted her as she actually is and not as the photoshopped version that she wants people to see.
This really did negatively affect the artist at the time and I hope he’s doing well now.
She looks like one of the characters on a VC Andrews Paperback cover.
It’s a perfect painting of Kate’s true colors. I won’t be surprised if they bring it back years from now when Gen A realizes she’s a complete B. They’re smart to know she’s one now 😀. karma has its way !
Wow. Thanks for the interesting information. That’s so unfortunate for the talented artist. Another person who got his reputation ruined for being too good at his job..
VC Andrews novel cover…
The artist was just painting what he saw. IMO it looks exactly like Kate.
“Now, I can disclose that the work has been consigned to a store room at the National Portrait Gallery . . .”
…which will soon be looking for a new night watchman and several new night guards…😂🤣🤣
You can see a side by side here: https://www.fineartportrait.com/brush-aside-blog/a-royal-fiasco
This was an interesting article – thanks for sharing!
It’s a painting of an unpleasant woman. Very hard to look at it, isn’t it?