There have been a lot of different reactions to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's new portrait. The painting has received accolades from several commentators who think it perfectly reflects the character of the pair. Some people have been harsher, saying it doesn't accurately depict the Cambridges.
Art critic AN Wilson tore the picture to pieces in a piece for The Daily Mail, calling it "petulant" and "as lifeless as a dodo." Kate seems like a "strangely boring doll," according to him, because the image fails to capture her "core magnetism." The woman in this artwork is sad, a little bit petulant, and actually unrecognizably Our Kate. "The real Duchess of Cambridge lifts everyone up with her radiant grin.
According to Rachel Campbell-Johnsto writing for The Times, the image, makes the couple appear like "mannequins. This is a swagger portrait for the contemporary royalty," she remarked. They cannot appear overly showy. They shouldn't wear garish clothing. Neither can they look out at their audience with a sneer of opulent wealth like the swashbuckling princelings in Van Dyck's pictures of previous royals. Instead, they must be as stiff as the columns, standing obediently while dressed in a dark suit and garish satin. These columns, which stand out against a blank background, have both stylistic (they soften the figures) and symbolic (they are the foundation of civilization) purposes."
But if you want to see them in a reproduction, it would probably be best to visit Madame Tussauds. "The couple posture like mannequins meant to advertise a modern monarchy.
Alistair Sooke, the art critic for The Telegraph, was a little more kind when he called the portrait's "flashes of charm." Who has their attention, he remarked? "Someone is making the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge grin, probably their four-year-old Prince Louis, who fidgeted so famously during the Platinum Jubilee. The British artist Jamie Coreth adds a crucial tone of informality to an image that may otherwise have been so formal with the help of this amusing trick. Prince William smiles generously, while Catherine seems almost bewildered".
Jean Dubreil