The artist behind the new portrait of the Princess of Wales, which has been criticized as 'dreadful,' has broken her silence.
Hannah Uzor, who created the painting of Kate featured on the latest cover of Tatler magazine, depicted Kate at the first state banquet of King Charles' reign during the 2022 South Africa state visit.
When the portrait was unveiled yesterday, it received significant backlash online, with many royal fans questioning its resemblance to Kate. One art critic even described it as "jaw-hits-the-floor bad."
Today, the British-Zambian artist responded to the reaction, telling the Daily Mail at her home that she was unaware of the controversy her work had generated.
She told the publication: "It is a fantastic story - and they [critics] can do what they want."
Kate did not sit for the portrait and Uzor researched photos of her to inform her work, saying she had found more than 189,000 images of Kate in a picture archive.
In an interview in Tatler, Uzor was asked whether the princess's recent cancer diagnosis video gave her a new perspective. She said: "Without a doubt. All my portraits are made up of layers of a personality, constructed from everything I can find about them." Kate's public address showed "a moment of dealing with something difficult, speaking from the heart, having the courage to tackle it head-on", she added. The artist expressed her admiration for the princess, who has stepped away from the public spotlight while she undergoes preventative chemotherapy.
"She has really risen up to her role – she was born for this. She carries herself with such dignity, elegance and grace," Uzor said. The painter, based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, is, like Kate, a mother of three, and added: "I sense with her the joy of motherhood."
Meanwhile, speaking in a video on Tatler's social media accounts, the artist talked about how she wanted to "capture the soul of the person". She explained: "So I spent a lot of time looking at her and looking at her pictures, watching videos of her, seeing her with her family, seeing her on diplomatic visits, seeing her when she's rowing or visiting children in a hospice. It has been really interesting for me to get a sense of who she is.
"The process for painting this portrait apart from studying the photographs and the videos is actually coming up with a sketch. So once I'm happy with the sketch and I've done a series of sketches in my sketchbook, particularly looking at her expression, was really key. So I've done several sketches, trying to capture her expression.
"And once I'm happy with that, I can then proceed to figure out what she's going to wear. But this particular outfit that I chose was particularly striking, it made her look very regal and very confident."