It’s been a strange year for representations of British royalty. In March, major photo agencies issued a rare “kill notice” on a photo of Catherine, Princess of Wales after evidence emerged that it had been tampered with. In May, Jonathan Yeo’s official portrait of King Charles sparked online discussion with its arresting red background. And now a portrait of Catherine commissioned by Tatler from Zambian-British artist Hannah Uzor is provoking yet more debate with its questionable degree of likeness.
In fact, British monarchs have grappled with issues of representation, accuracy and flattery in portraits since the Middle Ages, as the stories of these five monarchs show.
