"Bathing in blood" portrait of King Charles III draws mixed reactions
SalonKing Charles III, 75, was captured in the first royal portrait since his ascent to the throne, drawing a wide variety of reactions. Some noted that the eight-and-a-half-foot-tall portrait “looks like he’s bathing in blood,” while one person stepped forward to ask if he was “supposed to be a Tampax.” On X, comparisons ranged anywhere from "hell" to "rhubarb pie filling," but few were kind. Critics and journalists weighed in, too, including the Times of London’s chief art critic Laura Freeman, who asked, “Has a portrait of a blue-blooded British monarch ever been so very pink?” Royal historian Kate Williams told CNN that the painting had been described as a “portrait for a horror film,” adding that it only added to growing image challenges for the crown. “We see the king surrounded by this red, which really evokes this terrible history of oppression which we see in the British Empire, in slavery,” Williams said, citing criticisms of the portrait.
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