'Swimming in blood, burning in hell': Why King's portrait provoked debate

A striking bright red painting, over six feet tall, shows Britain’s King Charles III in his Welsh Guards uniform. His figure nearly merges into the background – an array of brushstrokes in various shades of crimson. A butterfly about to land on his right shoulder catches the eye.

This is his first official painted portrait since his coronation in May 2023.

What sets it apart from other royal portraits is not only its unconventional style in depicting a member of the royal family but also how it is perceived and interpreted by people from the moment of its unveiling.

Social media users reacted to the portrait with shock, likening it to figures such as "Dorian Gray" from Oscar Wilde’s eponymous novel, known for his unsettling portrait that reflects his inner darkness, or “Vigo the Carpathian”, a fictional dictator portrayed in the movie Ghostbusters II.

Many viewers interpret the portrait at first glance as a stark portrayal of the British Empire's bloody colonial history, with imagery suggesting the empire's figurehead engulfed in flames like he is burning in hell.

“As any true artist or poet knows, inspiration is not a choice,” says painter Safia Latif.

While the artist, Jonathan Yeo, and the royals intended for a skillfully executed portrayal of a fresh and vivid monarch, the audience's reception has already transformed the artwork into something entirely different.

“Whether unconsciously or consciously, Jonathan Yeo transmitted the truth of King Charles and the British empire onto his canvas,” Latif tells TRT World.

“The monarch butterfly was reportedly added at the request of King himself, who wanted to reflect the concept of rebirth. To me, the painting says: Here lies the dying evil empire and through it may we all experience a rebirth of humanity and civilisation.”

What does the king represent?

Artist Yeo explains that the motive behind creating the painting in almost monochrome, devoid of background details and predominantly red, was to intentionally minimise distractions. This, he says, allows viewers “to connect with the human being underneath”—the King himself.

The artist began the portrait while Charles held the title of Prince of Wales, conducting the first sitting in 2021. The King posed for four sessions, each lasting approximately an hour, concluding with the final sitting in November 2023.

He expresses his satisfaction with the final form of his artwork, saying it reflects exactly who the King is, “everything he represents and what he's been through".

It's reported that Queen Camilla also observed the painting and told Yeo, "Yes, you've got him."

The public debate, however, doesn't revolve around whether the artist accurately depicted the monarch but rather on the message conveyed by this depiction, or as the artist puts it, what the king “represents”.

“The comments show that he –and the royal family– are symptoms of the widespread inequality that reins in our societies,” says Santiago Zabala, philosopher of art at Pompeu Fabra University.

“Art rescues us in times of great emergencies that are hidden by empires, just like the one this king represents. From this perspective, this painting only reminds me of the consequences of unconditionally supporting Israel,” he tells TRT World.

The British Empire, which once exerted significant colonial influence in at least 94 present-day countries, encompassing approximately 48 percent of the globe, is now regarded as one of the principal complicit powers in numerous geopolitical conflicts and crises.

Once under British mandate, Palestine was among the many nations forsaken by the British Empire and remains under the oppressive force of Israeli occupation, persistently supported by the United Kingdom.

Undoubtedly, Israel's brutal and inhumane war on Gaza, ongoing for the past seven months and claiming the lives of over 35,000 people, made it nearly impossible for people to refrain from expressing their perceptions regarding the British King depicted drenched in blood.

As the head of Britain, he is a good candidate for that kind of interpretation, says Faisal Saleh, Founder and Executive Director of Palestine Museum US.

“People are not happy with Britain's enabling of the genocide in Gaza. So it gives them the idea that it's only appropriate to think that the head of the country is swimming in blood and burning in hell, that's a plausible feeling among the people,” he tells TRT World.

‘Divine irony’

The portrait, commissioned by the Drapers' Company, a livery company in the City of London that has been amassing royal portraits for centuries, will be displayed at Drapers' Hall in London.

The portrait will be shown at the Philip Mould Gallery in London from May 16th to June 14th, then at Drapers' Hall starting in late August.

From then on, what matters will be how viewers interpret the artwork in today's context, not the artist's original intent.

“What a painter or an artist wants to convey is secondary to the meaning the artwork has for the public. It’s the public that gives these works meaning,” philosopher Zabala says.

“What one person views as royal majesty, another may perceive as shades of hell,” Saleh adds.

Artist Safia Latif thinks that the public’s reading of this painting, “the image of a blood-soaked monarch ablaze in the fire of hell,” is a very convincing one, and she sees this portrait “as divinely inspired in the sense of what one might call divine irony.”

“We must bear in mind that this is not a portrait of an unknown person but a portrait of a powerful political figure with inextricable historical and contemporary ties to colonisation and imperialism. It is impossible not to associate it with the evil of the ruling class set against the backdrop of the current genocide in Gaza.”

Zabala says, on the other hand, that this painting is discussed widely “only because it’s a portrait of a living king”.

“I would prefer to be discussing a portrayal of dying children in Palestine now.”