The first official painted portrait of King Charles since his coronation was unveiled at Buckingham Palace this week.
The striking red oil painting on canvas, measuring about 8ft 6in by 6ft 6in, shows the monarch in the uniform of the Welsh Guards, sword in hand, and with a butterfly landing on his shoulder.
It was created by Jonathan Yeo, who has also painted the likes of Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Camilla, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Kevin Spacey and Cara Delevigne. He also previously created a collage of George W. Bush - and it was that which gained him worldwide notoriety.
Jonathan rose to international prominence in his early 20s as a contemporary artist, with GQ calling him 'one of the world's most in-demand portraitists'. He was educated at Westminster School but his passion for art came during his 20s when he taught himself to paint while recovering from Hodgkin's Disease.
"I had cancer in my early twenties. It wasn't fun but in retrospect it was also a quirk of time in that it was a time in my life where I was trying to decide what to do", he previously told Reader's Digest.
"Most people would try to talk me out of art because they see that as a difficult way to make a living, but when you're ill people don't want to give you bad news, so suddenly I was able to spend my twenties painting portraits."
In 2007, he unveiled an unauthorised portrait of George W. Bush, which was shown in London, New York and LA. He got the idea to make the collage following the cancellation of a commission by the White House to paint Bush in 2004. He made the portrait anyway, but in the form of a collage using pieces of pornographic magazines.
Yeo also did a portrait of Paris Hilton also made out of porn magazine images, which was subsequently bought by artist Damien Hirst.
His portrait of the King is altogether less controversial - although it has divided opinion amongst royal fans. Ahead of the unveiling, Yeo jokingly told the BBC: "If this was seen as treasonous, I could literally pay for it with my head, which would be an appropriate way for a portrait painter to die - to have their head removed!"
Thankfully, he had the seal of approval from the King, and Queen Camilla is said to have looked at the painting and told Yeo: "Yes, you've got him."
Yeo began the portrait when Charles was still Prince of Wales, with the first sitting at Highgrove in June 2021. The King sat four times in all, for about an hour at a time, with the final sitting at Clarence House in November 2023. He posed in his full Welsh Guards uniform and stood leaning on his sword for around 40 minutes each time.
Yeo said the portrait needed to be a specific scale, and there was a preference for Charles being in uniform, but that there were no other directions - which the artist admitted was "exciting and also a little bit daunting".
He said the King "couldn't be more lively" and was "very easy company" during their sittings, adding: "He kind of makes you laugh and asks lots of questions, and he's interested in art as well so there's always lots to talk about."
The King was made Regimental Colonel in the Welsh Guards in 1975. In the picture, the red of the uniform fades into the red background, bringing the King's face into even more prominence.
The butterfly, meanwhile, is also a reference to the King's long held interest in the environment. After the unveiling, Yeo said he would "love to take full credit for that" but it was "actually the subject's idea".
Yeo said that during a conversation with the King, they discussed how it would be "nice to have a narrative element which referenced his passion for nature and environment" and he spoke of how Charles "changed jobs halfway through the process" and the butterfly is a "symbol of metamorphosis".
After Yeo's speech, the King joked: "It's nice to know I was a chrysalis when you first met me", which was met with laughter."
The bright portrait was commissioned in 2020 to celebrate Charles’s 50 years as a member of the philanthropic organisation the Draper's Company in 2022
It will go up in Drapers' Hall in London surrounded by "a dozen other fabulous, similarly huge portraits of Queen Victoria and various other kings and queens".
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