„Bathing in blood“ portrait of King Charles III draws mixed reactions
King Charles III, 75, was captured in the first royal portrait since his ascent to the throne, drawing a wide variety of reactions.
Jonathan Yeo, a British artist who previously painted official portraits for Prime Minister Tony Blair and Sir David Attenborough, painted the monarch in a red Welsh guard uniform with a butterfly on his shoulder, atop a vibrant red background.
The painting, which will hang in London’s Draper’s Hall, took more than two years to complete and got a glance from the king and queen ahead of its Buckingham Palace debut.
Per the BBC, Queen Camilla told Yeo, „Yes, you’ve got him,“ upon seeing the piece.
But others were quick to draw comparisons to some quite non-royal imagery, flooding the royal family’s Instagram comments with reactions, before commenting was disabled.
Some noted that the eight-and-a-half-foot-tall portrait “looks like he’s bathing in blood,” while one person stepped forward to ask if he was “supposed to be a Tampax.