Revealed: First Official Portrait of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

The first official portrait of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge has been unveiled today (January 11). As BBC NEWS notes, “It was painted by the artist Paul Emsley and took several months using a technique of building thin layers of oil and glazes on canvas.”

“The duchess sat for the artist twice. Mr. Emsley also worked from a series of photographs he took of Catherine.”

(Photo: National Portrait Gallery/Paul Emsley)

Emsley told the BBC that he’d initially wanted an unsmiling portrait of Catherine, but he changed his mind upon meeting her. “It was the right choice in the end to have her smiling. That’s really who she is,” he said.

The portrait will be on display at London’s National Portrait Gallery, of which Catherine is a patron. (The duchess studied art history at St. Andrews.)

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