The artist behind a new portrait of the Princess of Wales that was branded ‘dreadful’ has broken her silence.

Hannah Uzor created the painting of Kate, which features on the latest cover of Tatler magazine and captures the princess at the first state banquet of the King’s reign during the 2022 South Africa state visit. Kate is shown in the artwork standing and facing forward in a regal, caped white Jenny Packham floor-length evening dress with sparkling detail on the shoulders, and her go-to tiara, the Lover’s Knot.

When the portrait was unveiled yesterday, it faced serious backlash online, with many royal fans questioning the likeness to Kate, and one art critic calling it “jaw-hits-the-floor bad”.

The new portrait of Kate which will feature on the cover of Tatler magazine ( 
Image:
Hannah Uzor/Tatler/PA)

Kate at the South Africa state banquet in November 2022 ( 
Image:
PA)
Today, the British-Zambian artist was asked about the reaction to her portrait and told the Daily Mail at her home today she was not aware of the backlash her work had created. 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. It is set against a green-blue background, which the artist said is a nod to Kate’s eye colour and the experience of being in a garden and on water, reflecting the princess’s love of rowing.

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.

A new portrait of the Princess of Wales has been unveiled ( 
Image:
PA)“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.”

Meanwhile, she also talked about the importance of colour and how it was important for her, especially when it came to Kate’s eyes. She added: “The bluey, turquoisey background was predominantly just to make sure that it matches her eyes because the eyes are really the window to the soul and so I focused a lot of time in trying to execute those eyes to match the colour palette of the background as well.”