The UK government is offering every public body in the country—from schools to fire stations—the chance to obtain and display a copy of the official portrait of King Charles III. But the £8m cost of the scheme, funded by the Cabinet Office ministerial department, has been criticised.
The portrait, taken at Windsor Castle last year by the photographer Hugo Burnand, shows the monarch in a uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet wearing medals and decorations.
A Cabinet Office statement initially said eligible institutions—including local authorities, courts, schools and rescue services—had until 2 February to apply for the new portrait. The deadline has now been extended for additional organisations including "town, parish and community councils and Ministry of Defence-sponsored cadet forces", a Cabinet Office spokesperson tells The Art Newspaper.
“The UK government considers it right that public authorities, as part of the fabric of our nation, have the opportunity to commemorate this moment, strengthen civil pride and reflect the new era in our history,” the office adds. Crucially, from the time of Queen Elizabeth I, multiples of portraits of the monarchs have been produced to give a "human face" to the state, leading to the commercially produced, more economically viable photographic portrait.
But when the initiative was announced last April, it provoked a backlash on social media. An anonymous teacher posted that “this is shameful when so many people are living on the poverty line” while another contributor said, “he’s Marie Antoinette in drag”. Meanwhile, Graham Smith, the managing director of the anti-monarch group Republic, called it a "shameful waste of money".
Burnand took a series of portraits of the royal family last year to mark the coronation of the new king. In an interview with The New York Times, he described the challenges of the task, outlining how he had spent weeks studying images of past coronations.
