Charlotte Foster
Art

"Looks nothing like her": Kate Middleton portrait ridiculed

A painted portrait of Kate Middleton has gone viral for all the wrong reasons, after royal fans everywhere claimed the artwork "looks nothing like" the Princess of Wales. 

The image, created by artist Hannah Uzor, appeared on the front cover of UK magazine Tatler, as the artist recreated Middleton's appearance at a banquet held in South Africa in 2022. 

The Princess wore a white beaded Jenny Packham gown, and also donned her famous tiara, the Lover’s Knot, which was previously worn by Princess Diana.

Uzor explained that in creating the artwork, she was inspired by the composure and bravery demonstrated by the royal mum-of-three in her emotional cancer diagnosis video in March.

“A moment of dealing with something difficult, speaking from the heart, having the courage to tackle it head-on,” she explained in awe.

However, many royal fans slated the artist on social media, simply asking, “are you kidding me?”.

“This is just plain weird, looks nothing like her,” one person commented.

“What have they done to her face,” asked another.

A third agreed: “Doesn’t look like Catherine at all. If she wasn’t wearing that dress I’d have no clue as to who it’s meant to be.”

“Are you kidding me? … You must be joking,” scorned someone else.

Others slated the artwork by saying they believed it looked “like it was created by a child”.

“It’s absolutely dreadful and should never have seen the light of day, let alone appear on the cover,” agreed another.

Hannah Uzor defended her artwork, saying she had to draw on other sources as she was not able to meet the Princess directly to create her portrait. 

She said, “When you can’t meet the sitter in person, you have to look at everything you can find and piece together the subtle human moments revealed in different photographs: do they have a particular way of standing or holding their head or hands? Do they have a recurrent gesture?"

“[Kate] has really risen up to her role – she was born for this. She carries herself with such dignity, elegance and grace."

Image credits: Tatler Magazine / Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Shutterstock Editorial 

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art, Kate Middleton, portrait