Last week, the first portrait of King Charles III’s reign was revealed. Meaning, this is the first official painting of Charles commissioned and completed during his reign. It was painted by Alastair Barford, a former Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust scholar. It featured Charles wearing a bracelet given to him by an indigenous Amazon leader. In general, for major birthdays or major title changes, the Windsors will give the public new portraits although the younger generations have definitely been phasing out “sitting for paintings.” In any case, new portraits have been commissioned for the new (old) king and since Britain is still a monarchy in which the monarch’s portrait must be displayed in public buildings, schools, courts, police precincts and government offices, the government has set aside millions of pounds to help people get brand new portraits of King Charles.

Ministers have been accused of “losing the plot” after setting aside £8m to offer every public body a free portrait of King Charles. In a move that drew criticism amid complaints of shrinking budgets across Whitehall and local government, Oliver Dowden, the cabinet office minister, said it was part of plans to celebrate the new reign and bring the nation together.

Dowden, who has also been co-ordinating the government’s response to the public sector strikes over pay, said local councils, courts, schools, police forces and fire and rescue services will be among the public institutions eligible for a free portrait, before the coronation at the beginning of May.

“We have entered a new reign in our history,” Dowden said. “Now as we unite in preparing for the splendour of the king’s coronation, these new portraits will serve as a visible reminder in buildings up and down the country of the nation’s ultimate public servant. They will help us turn a page in our history together – and pay a fitting tribute to our new sovereign. I am sure the portraits will take pride of place in public buildings across the land.”

However, it drew immediate criticism from anti-monarchy campaigners last night. Graham Smith, from the Republic group, called for the scheme to be scrapped. “This is a shameful waste of money,” he said. “At a time when a majority of local councils are raising taxes and cutting public services, when schools and hospitals are struggling, to spend even £1 on this nonsense would be £1 too much. The government has lost the plot if they think that people want their money spent on pictures of Charles. They need to scrap this scheme and direct the money where it’s really needed.The coronation is estimated to cost anything from £50m to £100m – and we can see why. This waste is absolutely scandalous.”

The government said that official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II were currently on display in many public institutions, and “offering of the new official portrait of King Charles III will enable organisations across the UK to carry on that tradition”.

[From The Guardian]

In most government offices here in America, they change the portraits when a new president is inaugurated, although I have no idea if schools and all public buildings do the same at this point? But, like, if you walked into a federal building, there would be a portrait of President Biden on display somewhere. I’ve never really thought about the cost of that, but I’m sure it’s noted somewhere on some line-item budget. So… yeah… I think the British government is spending way too much money to glorify King Charles, but I also think… if there are rules about where the monarch’s portrait is displayed, people are going to want to adhere to that rule? Like, what’s the other option, just keep portraits of QEII up forever? Or try to keep up with the parade of prime ministers and put their portraits up?

The most offensive part of this (to me) is “the nation’s ultimate public servant.” Dude has eleventy billion castles and a net worth of something like a billion dollars. Don’t call him the ultimate public servant.

Here’s the portrait done by Alastair Barford. He just had to hide his sausage fingers.

Portrait by Alastair Barford, additional photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.