Kudos to painter Paul Emsley for transforming Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, into a middle-aged woman. The painting, which was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, and given by Sir Hugh Leggatt in memory of Sir Denis Mahon, through the Art Fund, also comes with a delightful promo video. Art Historian Christopher Lloyd helpful guides viewers through the painting, with a series of observations about what makes this portrait so great.”One of the wonderful aspects of this portrait is the sense of mystery.” he tells us, before explaining that said mystery is caused because the hair around her face has a sense of movement to it. Also, the background is a dark color.
Lloyd goes on for three minutes like this, identifying virtuosity where we once only knew description. To whit, a paraphrasing of some of historian’s final thoughts: Don’t let your eyes leave the painting without noticing the connection between Middleton’s eyes and earrings; they are both circles.
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Is there any point where this could cross from ‘picture making’ (to borrow a phrase from R. Hughes) into art or is Chris Lloyd being overly generous out fear of the royal family?
What do you imagine the House of Windsor could possibly do?
It was a joke that plays on the power of royal families, back in the day they could have your head… (again that was a joke, I think today all they can do is fire you and have you jailed)
I think his review of the piece was overly generous. I think it looks like an awkward portrait; I applaud the fact that it doesn’t look exactly like every previous royal portrait but it isn’t anything really noteworthy.
Lets look at it another way, when you compare this to some of the best portraits the world has seen (eg Mona Lisa or Adell Blach Bauer), how does it measure up? Not even close. Moving down a teir, portraits by Andy Warhol or Chuck Close, how does it measure up here? Again it falls pretty short.
I’m not implying that you can pull out a ‘ruler’ and measure the quality of a work of art (although you could easily argue that value is a pretty good indicator of quality or worth to humanity), but I am saying this is just a painting. it’s probably okay but nothing noteworthy. It doesn’t jump out as being some hyper-realist breakthrough or add a new dimension to Kate.
I feel that Chris is being overly generous with his commentary. I get it, he has a job to do and he works for the royal family, hence my joke.
impressive
The Queen had a pistol at his back… she can time travel — AND can turn invisible. I think she may have been Jack the Ripper as well.
I like it. It’s weird and a little creepy.
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