I judge royal portraits on a sliding scale, or maybe I just enjoy debating whether artists actually capture the essence of certain royals. Jonathan Yeo’s “bloody” portrait of King Charles is a masterpiece and possibly the peak of royal portraiture. Paul Emsley’s portrait of Princess Kate was also notable for making Kate look like a bewigleted ghost, haunting all of Britain. In recent years, Tatler has gotten into the “people like to talk about royal portraits” game in a big way, so the magazine has commissioned a series of portraits for their covers. In 2024, they commissioned a Kate portrait where the artist made her look like Minka Kelly – art critics really despised it. Well, Tatler recently commissioned Nigerian artist Oluwole Omofemi to paint a portrait of Prince William, and Tatler put it on their cover. Thoughts?
My first thought was… is that really supposed to be William, or is it secretly supposed to be Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince Michael and Princess Michael of Kent? Many have commented on Frederick and William’s resemblance, so it’s not that off-base. Meaning… you can tell who this portrait is supposed to be, in a general way – either William or Frederick. Take your pick. The sad truth is that neither William nor Frederick has that much hair left. Omofemi was really generous with how he did William’s “hair.” The “shadow” falling on William’s face is interesting too – it definitely adds an extra element of ghoulishness.
Tatler’s cover story was bizarrely about Omofemi and not William. You know what? That’s fine. You can read the piece here. Tatler can be so shady about the royals sometimes, I feel like it’s significant that they didn’t barf out some “future king” bullsh-t. Or maybe they just haven’t released that article yet.
Cover courtesy of Tatler, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
