To mark Charles III’s coronation in 2023, the U.K. government commissioned a portrait of the King and offered it for free (frame included) to all public institutions to display. The response has been underwhelming.
A summary recently released by the Cabinet Office revealed that between November 2023 and August 2024, only 20,500 orders were placed. Just over one-third of eligible public institutions in England acquired a portrait, compared to 13.7 percent in Scotland, 13.8 percent in Wales, and 10.5 percent in Northern Ireland.
Taken by semi-regular royalist photographer Hugo Burnand—he snapped the official wedding portraits of Prince William and Catherine—the portrait shows King Charles standing in Windsor Castle wearing the Royal Navy uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet. When the scheme was announced in April 2023, it received widespread pushback, including from the anti-monarch group Republic, which called it a “shameful waste of money.” Such feelings will likely be exacerbated by the news the scheme cost £2.7 million ($3.4 million), working out at roughly $165 per portrait.
Across all public institutions that were eligible to apply for a portrait, the most enthusiastic was the Coastguard with all 23 of the U.K.’s centers taking up the offer. The Coastguard was followed by the Lord Lieutenancies, which are the monarch’s representatives in the country’s counties, with 75 out of 99 offices placing an order. Next came government departments called arm’s-length bodies which showed a 73 percent take up across its more than 1,400 offices.
Hugo Burnand holds a print of one of his photographs of royal wedding. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images.
On the other end of the scale, less than three percent of hospitals applied for a portrait followed by just over seven percent of universities and higher education centers. Perhaps most surprisingly, a mere 25 percent of Church of England Churches, for which Charles is the supreme governor and defender, applied for the portrait.
The distribution of the British monarch’s portrait is one that takes place across many of the Commonwealth of nations. In Australia, every citizen is entitled to request and receive a physical portrait of their monarch free of charge. Canadians are entitled to a printed copy so long as they pay for postage and in New Zealand, portraits are available for free but only as a digital download.
Back in July, the official Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand portraits of King Charles and Queen Camilla were released. Taken in Buckingham Palace by Millie Pilkington they showed the monarchs wearing bejeweled brooches representing the respective countries.
Artist Jonathan Yeo and King Charles III stand in front of the portrait of the King Charles III by artist Jonathan Yeo as it is unveiled in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace. Photo by Aaron Chown-WPA Pool/Getty Images
The first painted portrait of Charles III, by contrast, was far from the staid and heavily symbolic image typical of the genre. Jonathan Yeo’s giant canvas (nine-by-seven foot) showed the King’s aged face emerging out of a sea of reds. A butterfly hovered over his left shoulder, symbolizing his transformation from prince to king. It hangs in Drapers’ Hall in central London.