But Yeo says our relationship with royalty has shifted since those days.
“On the one hand, we know they’re real people with quirks and personality traits. We’ve seen that much more of them. On the other hand, we still want to buy into the mysticism and the fairy tale that they’re different from us, that there’s a bit of magic there.”
In his portrait, he was “trying to figure out how to do both at once”.
Painting a portrait of this size was “quite an operation”, says Yeo. Having used his first sittings with the king for photographs and sketches, he did most of the painting between the third and fourth sittings.
He then had to hire a truck to transport the canvas and his equipment to Clarence House for the last time he saw the King.
As well…
