I do not know what anyone associated with the United Kingdom's royal family was thinking in releasing this new portrait of Prince William, but...they made the wrong decision because it is bad. Like, remember when that one woman decided to restore this legendary, famous fresco of Jesus in Spain by herself so she painted over the image and it looked hilarious and terrible? This sort of reminds me of that, only worse because it was clearly a serious effort.
The portrait is reportedly titled "Fatherhood," and was painted by British artist Dan Llywelyn Hall to be sold in October to raise money for The Victoria Cross Trust and War Memorials Trust. A quick look at his website shows that Hall is actually quite talented — his collection of other portraits and works of art are beautiful. Everyone has an off day! However, Hall actually drew similar criticisms for his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II last year to mark the 60th anniversary of the coronation, so maybe it's just when the royal family is involved.
Wait, maybe I'm being too harsh. I have a tendency to do that sometimes, what with snarking on the Internet being how I make a living and feed my soul and all.
Nevermind. Not too harsh.
As The Huffington Post points out, the portrait has received masses of hilarious feedback on Twitter, including comments like "Whatcha mean a bit rubbish? ... It's total rubbish!" and "it's bloody awful." UK site Metro even posted an article asking readers if they can paint a better portrait of Prince William, and included an image to print out and color in. They also made memes. Never change, England.
Image: DailyMailUK/Twitter
