Last year, there was a strange story about how the Princess of Wales possibly demanded that the National Portrait Gallery put a royal portrait in storage. Kate is the royal patron of the gallery, and the gallery quietly removed an old portrait of Prince Harry and Prince William from display. The gallery didn’t say anything other than: we cycle portraits in and out all the time, no biggie. Well, back in May, the same gallery acquired a copy of Misan Harriman’s portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harriman released three photos of Harry and Meghan in October 2022, photos which were taken in Manchester one month prior. NPG chose the black-and-white image of Harry and Meghan in profile. Harriman was so pleased – it was his first photo added to NPG’s collection. Well, now the Mail claims that Kate possibly got NPG to bury Misan’s portrait?
The National Portrait Gallery has said it won’t put up a picture of Prince Harry and Meghan that it acquired earlier this year. The black and white image by photographer Misan Harriman – a friend of the Sussexes – was taken when the couple attended the opening of the One Young World summit in Manchester two years ago, after they dramatically quit royal life and moved to California.
But last night a spokesman for the gallery, whose patron is the Princess of Wales, said: ‘The portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was acquired for the Gallery’s photographs collection in May 2024. Following cataloguing and its digitisation, the portrait was added to our website at the beginning of this month. There are no current plans to display the portrait in the gallery.’
It comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed that the Royal Collection has no photographs of Meghan in its vast archives of more than a million objects.
Mr Harriman is a globally celebrated celebrity and social photographer who became the first black man to shoot a cover of British Vogue in the magazine’s 104-year history. The National Portrait Gallery holds one of the world’s greatest collection of portraits, but its patron Kate has no say over which are added to the collection.
There were rumours last year that the Princess was secretly pleased when a controversial portrait of her, painted by artist Paul Emsley, was removed from public view.
LOL, I’m including the Emsley painting below – it was iconic because he really captured how she looks and not in a Disney-princess way. As for all of this fuss about Harriman’s photo, did NPG ever say that they were going to put it on display? No, they just made a point of adding it to their collection. They should put it on display though, it’s a lovely photo. As for the Royal Collection not having any photos or paintings of Meghan… lol, she wasn’t there long enough and they were too racist to celebrate her when she was there. She really should have gotten some palace-commissioned artwork, but oh well. Thankfully, Meghan can and does organize her own photoshoots whenever she wants.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, and Misan Harriman for the Sussexes.
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- Manchester, UNITED KINGDOM – Meghan Markle speaks at the One Young World 2022 Manchester Summit in the UK. Pictured: Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 5 SEPTEMBER 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Manchester, UNITED KINGDOM – BGUK_2453366 – STRICTLY NO MAIL ON LINE USAGE Prince Harry and Megan Markle catch a train back to London and are all smiles after spending the day in Manchester at the One Young World Summit. Pictured: Megan Markle, Prince Harry BACKGRID USA 5 SEPTEMBER 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: FARRELL / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- 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
OMG their jealousy knows no bounds lol. I seriously doubt the Sussexes will care but they will be sad for Misan who was very happy to have it there.
I don’t think Misan had any expectation that his photos would be put on display. It’s a photo of Harry and Meghan after all and the NPG has taken down the portrait of Harry and William. However it is a great honour to be included in the NPG collection so I’m sure he’s happy about that.
Exactly. Only about 5% of the collection is on display and really there’s very few modern royal images on display. Not a large number of royal ones period. It’s not the Royal Picture Gallery. There’s a lot to cover!
It looks like the royals have everyone and every business of institution on that damn island in their power. They can demand whatever they want, threaten, bully, etc., and they all go on their knees for them.
What happened for that society to become so North Korea like sycophantic? Scary.
I mean, cool, whatever. It is still a big deal one of Misan’s photos got acquired by NPG and I am sure he is very proud about it. About Meghan not getting an official painting, is it out of the ordinary? I don’t remember Fergie or Edward’s wife getting an official portrait and Meghan wasn’t there long enough to get one anyway. Maybe it would be cool, but you never know with the artist. If they commissioned some racist, you know they would do some shady sh*t to make Meghan look worse than Kate’s portraits, full with dog whistles.
I love Misan’s photos of H&M. He really knows how to capture their beauty and happiness.
Camilla has just an handful of portraits and she’s the Queen Consort. Very few paintings are actually done anymore and the vast majority are of the monarch.
Meghan is such an ethereal beauty, and I love this series of photos by Misan Harriman. He caught their personalities so well, because he’s a friend.
I always called the BW one “us against the world” in my imagination, even if it looks like it’s the moment before they went on stage, and maybe they’re just waiting for their cue.
I’m sad for Misan though, it does feel like a slight to him, even if the NPG never said they’d immediately put it on display.
God, that Kate portrait is such a read
It’s TRAGIC.
I never blamed her one bit for insisting that it be put into permanent storage.
It should by rights be stored in an attic where it will continue to show her true face while she botoxes and photoshops her way to eternal ‘youth’.
It really captures her smirk and the deadness of her eyes. It’s spot on, and that is something that the royals just cannot have.
I have no doubt that KKKhate asked for the photo of Meghan to not be displayed. It’s everything a pick-me girl would do, and I doubt the gallery has the nerve to ignore the request despite their protest. Not displaying the work of a black artist is probably the cherry on top for both pick-me and the gallery.
That Kate portrait – like she might have just poisoned your tea. 😳
Lol. So this story is definitely implying that Kate had a picture of Harry taken down, one of Meghan not even put up, and a controversial, read unflattering, picture of herself taken down. It’s the DM so it’s very possible Kate had nothing to do with any of that. Maybe she did but there’s a good chance not. Either way, by implying it though, they’re making Kate look BAD. This is making her look jealous and hella petty. This is not a good article for her actually.
Love that portrait of Waity. Truly captures her physical appearance and her mean girl essence. Reminds me of her smiling at the queen’s funeral events.
Who is going to tell the royal family that when they do petty crap like this it only confirm what Meghan has said, that they’re racist as hell. It looks bad for them considering some of their subjects are POC, they can deny it as much as they want, but actions speak louder than words, and not everyone believes the UK tabloids because the world is larger then a tiny island and people outside that island make up their own minds by watching and listening. And right now when they do things like this it looks bad for them.
I agree, they certainly are not doing anything good for their credibility outside of that isle.. when that rota propaganda bubble finally burst it will be far to late to rehab their reputations on the world stage.
Did the national gallery not make a lot of money of off displaying Meghan’s wedding pics and her dress (& Harry’s outfit) (for years), after they were moved from exhibition at Windsor Castle and Holyroodhouse in Scotland, or Am I mixing up the location?
By the way, the UK needs to give Meghan back her wedding dress (if not already). She payed for that almost quarter of a million dress out of her own pocket. It belongs in a black (history) museum in the US.
The dress was on display at Windsor and Holyrood not the NPG.
She may very well have it. Diana’s has been at Althorp though no longer on display. The Middletons paid for Kate’s and Meghan for her own. Both are likely stored by the royals because their preservation is top notch but who knows. If they asked for it they’d get it.
This was actually Misan’s third picture acquired by the NPG, not the first. He has a photo of Lewis Hamilton on display. The NPG never said they were going to display the H&M picture so this is a non story.
The NPG was never going to display that photo even if Kate wasn’t the patron. I’m sure Misan knew that too. I’m glad Meghan’s not in the Royal Collection. What I want to know is do they still have her wedding dress and when will they be sending it back to Meghan? As for Kate’s portrait I don’t see anything wrong with it. That’s how she looks without the retouching.
Anonymous here with a bit of background on the NPG. (sorry to those who are already familiar with all this. I’m not trying to patronise you or anyone. This is just background for those who don’t know the gallery or the collection).
The NPG reopened last summer after an extensive redevelopment. I was there on its opening day (not the preview, the main first day of opening).
I’ve been back two or three times since and it’s very clear that the displays are far more dynamic now than they were previously. On my first visit I felt bombarded by twentieth century royal portraits, and got the distinct impression that they have gone heavy on the current royal family because of the royal patronage aspect. Since then, the displays have already changed noticeably and there are fewer pictures of the queen and the current crop of royals. This is actually noticeable.
Just because the NPG isn’t planning to immediately hang this image, says nothing about six months time or a year’s time, or ever. The gallery as it is now has way more scope to change displays and present, effectively temporary, themed displays so this image, and any of the the many thousand of others held in their collection (including two of my family members), could go on display at any time. I doubt that the curators care about Kate’s opinions.
This is just yet another non-story turned into a ‘snub’ (surprise).
For info: the NPG is a very good gallery and free to enter so worth a visit if you’re in London. You can literally just ignore the Kate connection. It means nothing of importance to visitors.
Thanks for this, I haven’t been for years (well before the redevelopment) as I tend to end up at the V&A and/or British Museum when I’m there with some free time. My BFF and I do a day trip for our birthdays each year and mine is in November so maybe we’ll mix it up a bit this time.
I would definitely recommend a visit. There are some significant changes to the gallery both in terms of the physical structure and accessibility, and in terms of the range of images displayed.
The displays really show the range of portraiture in the collection much better now. There’s a much more diverse range on display, in terms of ethnicity, gender, national origin and social and economic status, even jobs (of photographers and subjects). There are also some really interesting displays looking at the media of portraiture – cartes de visites, studio photographs, a range of painting styles, portrait busts, popular culture and there’s even a portrait head made from the artist’s blood! They also examine the ways and reasons why images have entered the collection, with little potted histories of individuals. It’s nicely done.
Thank you for this information @anonymous. It really helps those of us an ocean away understand how that particular gallery works. I have to say that I was very surprised to hear that Kate’s portrait was only recently removed from viewing. That says a lot about the independence of the NPG that they continue to exhibit a portrait that their Royal Patron so clearly detested!
I do have one question. When the gallery reopened and there were a lot of pictures of the current Royals, were there any of Harry and Meghan? Or, does current Royals now mean only working royals?
Hi,
when the gallery opened, there seemed to be loads of portraits of the queen (the actual queen, not Camilla). I felt like she was stalking me because every time I turned a corner, there she was. This isn’t so surprising as she had only recently died. There are fewer now, or at least they aren’t so in-your-face.
There were definitely a couple of Phillip and Diana and they had at least a couple of Kate and William, but, IIRC, they were only in the ground floor gallery. I think that’s where the launch reception was taking place, which Kate attended, so I guess that they were basically there for her. I don’t remember any of Meghan and Harry but I’m not sure that they owned any of Meghan prior to the Misan Harriman joint-portrait. I would need to check the catalogue. Even if there aren’t any in there at the moment, don’t read anything into that. It can sometimes take a little while for items to be accessioned.
My feeling is that, especially for the reopening, the gallery could do without the drama in any case. Royal squabbles aren’t their problem. They have actual work to do.
Thank you again for the information @anonymous. While we don’t know for sure, it is sad to think that it is indeed a possibility that a desire, on the part of the NPG, to avoid “drama” could influence the photos they do and don’t show.
Thanks for the explainer. National Portrait Gallery UK sounds similar to National Portrait Gallery USA in that they receive a mix of public funding and private donations. Differences appear to be age (1856 v 1968 openings), and that NPG USA (Smithsonian) focuses on Americans, whereas NPG UK prides itself on holding “world’s greatest collection of portraits” that span “six centuries…from global icons to local champions…” Colonization much? Personally, I’m glad NPG UK has “no current plans to display the [Sussexes] portrait in the gallery.” With BRFCo & Assoc concocting hate, lies, misogyny, racism and xenophobia directed at the couple, their portrait would probably be defaced.
Racists gonna racists. Lololol…they should take that KKKate portrait and put it on postcards, t-shirts, mugs and shit. It really does capture her withering spirit.
Or maybe a Hallowe’en mask.
That pic of Kate is the Disney Villain vibes certainly not Princess,looks like Cinderellas step mum.
Meghan knows that if she had ordered any palace-commissioned artwork they would all have been annoying saying that she is vain and has no right to ask for any palace-commissioned artwork.
Of course the palaces never commissioned any official portraits of Meghan. She can’t be immortalized lest the huge contrast between her natural beauty and KKKhate’s struggle face be on ongoing display. What petty and childish behavior! The denizens of Salt Island stay showing the world what low and nasty bigots they are. Can’t have a person with Black blood be celebrated for her loveliness in contrast to their pale English Rose!
While added to the collection, never heard they intended to display it anytime soon. If they did however, they’d get record crowds, just saying.
Ha, whenever I see that painting I’m like why did Kate approve of this portrait? She could have told the artist at any time sorry I don’t like but here’s the $ for your time. That black background just makes her look more ghostly and severe.
Museums are always acquiring objects for their collections. What we see on display is a small fraction of what museums have in storage and the vast majority we never get to see ever. Maybe someday they’ll put this image up of the Sussexes but this was just another acquisition for their collection. Not having it on display isn’t a snub.
Meghan is luminous — no wonder Kate doesn’t want any images of her in the NPG. Kate looks haggard and artificial in comparison.
I agree, Kittenmom! She is evil. I swear, if you stare at it long enough the eyes start to move.
I’m trying to decide how much time anyone spends on what the NPG displays at any given time. I’m going with little to none.
The Dm is just trying to stir up 💩, big surprise. There are 290,403 items, digitized and not, listed in the Royal Collection. There are none listed of William, Harry, Kate either. A few hundred of Diana. Less than 850 for Charles and a good hunk are from his childhood.
Edited to add: this is in reference to the line about the RC archives separate from the NPG story.
And the RC only has nine images listed of Camilla.
Trust the Royal Family to be openly sinister and racist without reason. It’s erasure plain and simple.