Paul Emsley, the winner of the
BP Portrait Award in 2007 was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge (aka Kate Middleton) and it is now on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The
reviews have been largely negative. What do you think?
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| "Duchess of Cambridge" by Paul Emsley |
Some of the comments were quite unkind such as "the painting made the duchess look undead, like a character in one of the Twilight movies" or "it is perfectly adequate for the boardroom of a supermarket but entirely inadequate for a national collection". (1st quote from Charlotte Higgins of the Guardian, 2nd quote from David Lee in Daily Mail)
My first reaction is that the artist made her look older than her 31 years. It looks like it was beautifully rendered - I think no one can argue that Emsley knows how to handle paints. His style is super realism as shown in this beautiful portrait of his neighbor which won him the prestigious prize.
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| "Michael Simpson" by Paul Emsley |
I do not believe one can get this effect with a camera with current printing processes. It has a holographic quality. I feel like I could reach out and caress his face. It is masterfully painted and goes way beyond a creating a likeness. Is the problem the subject? The Duchess is young and beautiful which means she won't have the interesting lines and shadows that ultimately occurs on a face that makes painting an older face so fascinating and fun. Her portrait is missing that holographic quality but to be fair, I need to see the piece in person to really assess this feature. He portrayed her as looking older and perhaps a little heavier than she is. Maybe this is the way he saw her because he said he wanted to portray her as her natural self, rather than her official self. I like that the portrait is not sentimental and I find that he captured a certain harshness to the face. For me, the harshness comes from the painted eyebrows and the dark eye make up which the Duchess seems to favor. I would love to see her with very little make up to really capture her natural self. The mouth is curious...is she stifling a laugh or just smirking? Either way, it does have negative connotations. In "Michael Simpson", the viewer feels the humanity in the painting. With the Duchess, it feels like she lacks compassion. Perhaps, the harshness and lack of compassion is Emsley's way of depicting royalty.
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