A new portrait of King Charles III depicts his “warmth” and “empathy” and shows him wearing a bracelet given to him by an indigenous Amazon leader, the artist has said.
Alastair Barford said he wanted to capture Charles’s “sensitivity” in the oil painting, with the inclusion of the bracelet a nod to his environmental campaigning.
The picture was commissioned by the Illustrated London News for its special coronation edition, which is on sale from Thursday.
Charles did not sit for the portrait, but Barford attended a biodiversity reception at Buckingham Palace and spent around an hour and a half observing the King as he greeted guests.
He said of his work: “I wanted it to be more about the man and less about the role so I was trying to capture something of a warmth and an empathy which I saw in his interactions with those people when I was there.
“I felt that there was a sort of a sensitivity.”
Charles was presented with a necklace made from seeds – symbolic of an alliance between the King and indigenous people – and a bracelet by Domingo Peas, leader of the Achuar Nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon, at the Palace reception in February.
Barford said: “I thought it was really nice to leave the bracelet in as a nod to the event and a nod to his interest in environmental matters.”
The artist, from Bridport in Dorset, was also commissioned by Illustrated London News to paint the late Queen in 2015.
It comes after the King and Queen Consortare set to visit Germany from Wednesday to Friday, following the cancellation of their trip to France due to civil unrest in the country.
The royal couple were due to begin Charles’ first state visit as King on Sunday but the trip was postponed after scores of people protested on the streets across France, resulting in hundreds of arrests and injuries to both police and civillians.
French president Emmanuel Macron said the visit will likely be rescheduled for the beginning of summer.
Charles and Camilla are proceeding with their visit to Berlin as planned.
