Artist behind King Charles' red portrait makes heartbreaking confession about his 'frustration' over public reaction
The unique portrait sparked mixed reactions online
In May 2024, when the first official red painted portrait of King Charles since his coronation was unveiled, the striking artwork instantly divided opinion.
Painted by British artist Jonathan Yeo, the towering oil-on-canvas depicts the king in the uniform of the Welsh Guards, with a butterfly hovering just above his shoulder.
It was commissioned in 2020 to mark Charles’ 50 years as a member of The Drapers’ Company. Yeo said his aim was to “make reference to the traditions of royal portraiture but in a way that reflects a 21st century monarchy”.
But while the painting was praised by some as bold and contemporary, others online compared the crimson backdrop to everything from “a blood bath” to “the underworld”.
Months after the unveiling, Yeo admitted the global reaction left him unexpectedly frustrated.
Artist behind King Charles’ red portrait on ‘frustration’
“The day after my portrait’s public reveal with King Charles III… I saw that it was on the front cover of all the newspapers. That felt great,” Yeo wrote in an essay for Newsweek in July 2024. “Then it went mad online.”
He explained that much of the backlash stemmed from how the painting was seen, not in person, but through phone screens.
He admitted: “I soon became frustrated. The way the picture was reproduced tended to exaggerate the red colour. When an eight-foot picture is shrunk down to the size of a phone screen, the portrait is oversimplified. A lot of people seemed to only be talking about the red. But the painting itself is a lot more subtle.”
Yeo sits on the board of the National Portrait Gallery. He recalled being in a trustees’ meeting as his phone filled with messages from his daughters showing him memes and conspiracy theories about the artwork.
At that point, he said, the artwork felt like it “no longer belongs to you”.
He believes the dramatic unveiling video, where the king pulls away a black drape and instinctively steps back from the enormous canvas, also fuelled speculation, as viewers interpreted his movement as surprise or horror.
In reality, Charles had already seen the portrait when it was nearly finished. Yeo said he appeared pleased with the result.
‘I hoped it would feel otherworldly’
Yeo explained that the overwhelming red tone was a conscious choice, influenced by the brief to depict the king in his Welsh Guards uniform.
Rather than allowing the red tunic to dominate the piece, Yeo chose to let the colour wash across the entire background to create what he described as an “other-worldly” atmosphere and to explore the question of what royalty looks like today.
He said: “I hoped it would feel other-worldly and pose the question: what is royalty in this current age?”
He also noted that during months of showing the painting privately in his studio, hardly anyone mentioned the colour. Those who did perceived it as “pink rather than red”.
Despite the backlash, Yeo remains comfortable with the risks he took. Recalling advice from artist Damien Hirst, he suggested that controversy can be a sign that a work has truly captured attention.
Ultimately, Yeo says the portrait was about capturing a monarch for future generations: “These portraits will stick around for hundreds of years. I wanted to make the painting legible to future generations.”
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