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When King Charles III last year unveiled the first official portrait of his reign, the artwork caused a stir.<\/p>\n
On social media, some users said that the painting, which depicts the king surrounded by a red glow, made Charles look like he was bathing in blood. Others said that the portrait, by Jonathan Yeo, made the king appear to be burning in hell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
So on Tuesday, King Charles was perhaps hoping for a better reaction when he unveiled his official coronation portrait \u2014 an artwork by Peter Kuhfeld showing the king in the regalia that he wore two years ago for the lavish crowning ceremony. In the work, sunlight from a nearby window makes the crown, sat on a plinth, appear to glisten.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The monarch also unveiled a second official portrait, by Paul Benney, of his wife, Queen Camilla \u2014 an almost photorealistic depiction of the queen wearing her silk coronation dress and staring out at the viewer.<\/p>\n
Coronation portraits have for centuries been a traditional part of the crowning of a monarch. Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s<\/a>, by Herbert James Gunn, showed her in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, the crown and scepter on a table beside her \u2014 symbols of rule that traditionally appear in coronation portraits.<\/p>\n On social media, the immediate reaction to Mr. Kuhfeld\u2019s work was more positive than it had been for Mr. Yeo\u2019s effort. \u201cFortunately, it\u2019s not an all-red painting like the first one,\u201d one commenter wrote<\/a>. \u201cSoooo beautiful,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n Both Mr. Kuhfeld, who is in his early 70s, and Mr. Benney, 65, have longstanding professional relationships with the king. In 1986, Charles commissioned Mr. Kuhfeld to paint his sons, William and Harry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Kuhfeld has said that Charles\u2019s patronage helped to kick-start his career. \u201cMy name started to be bandied around London,\u201d the artist said in a 2012 interview<\/a>. \u201cWhatever I was doing for the prince was in demand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Later, Charles paid for Mr. Kuhfeld to accompany him on several royal tours, including to Iran and to Japan, asking the artist to paint whatever inspired him.<\/p>\n In a news release on Tuesday, Mr. Kuhfeld said that the painting had taken him \u201cover a year and a half to complete\u201d and that he had \u201ctried to produce a painting that is both human and regal, continuing the tradition of royal portraiture.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Benney, who also paints more abstract works (two of which<\/a> are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s collections), has long associations with the royal family, too. In 2015, he painted Queen Elizabeth stroking a horse<\/a>, and in 2022, Charles commissioned him to paint Holocaust survivors\u2019 portraits<\/a> for display at Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n