New portrait of King and Queen unveiled to mark 20th wedding anniversary
A new portrait of the King and Queen has been unveiled to mark the couple's 20th wedding anniversary.
Phillip Butah, the monarch's tour artist, based the painting on an image captured by Millie Pilkington, a royal photographer, in the garden of Buckingham Palace last year.
Mr Butah was invited to accompany the King and Queen on their state visit to Kenya in 2023.
'They are one of the most famous couples of our time, so it was fascinating for me to see the personal side of their relationship,' he said. 'It is so strong and they are a great team.'
The portrait will grace the June cover of Tatler magazine and comes after a new portrait of the Princess of Wales was unveiled for last July's Tatler cover.
Hannah Uzor, the artist, said the Princess's cancer treatment had influenced her work, 'without a doubt' changing the way she depicted the royal.
Before that, Trinidadian artist Sarah Knights' portrait of the King appeared on the magazine's July 2023 cover, while Oluwole Omofemi, a young Nigerian artist, was commissioned to create a celebratory portrait of Elizabeth II to mark the Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
Mr Butah said: 'I love the fact that a top glossy magazine commissions an artist to make a cover, because art and fashion do belong together.'
He added of his own 'informal' portrait: 'I think it will be a first; I have never seen the royal couple painted together on the cover of a magazine, and I just want people to enjoy it and see it as a celebration of our King and Queen.'
Mr Butah, who was raised in east London, first came to His Majesty's attention when he entered a Prince's Trust competition for young artists at the age of just 14.
His self portrait so impressed the Kings that he was invited to a palace reception with his mother.
He went on to become the youngest prizewinner in the competition Young Artists' Britain: The Prince of Wales's Young Artists' Award, in 1998, before studying fine art at Central St Martins.
Mr Butah later wrote to the Prince asking if he could draw him, explaining that he was interested in sittings with people who had impacted his life.
A year went by and there was no word. Then, Clarence House called out of the blue, telling him he should make himself available for six sittings with the then heir to the throne between 2008-2009.
The organisers of that original Prince's Trust art competition happened to be John and Imogen Sheeran, parents of singer Ed.
The couple became mentors to the young artist and Mr Butah, in turn, became a great friend of their son, going on to sketch the singer for the cover of his extremely successful 2011 album, +.
The artist continued with his career, which included creating a book with Sheeran, but at around the time of the Coronation, he reached out to Buckingham Palace asking if he might be considered to do the official portraits.
That job had already gone but the palace came back to him a few months later to ask if he wanted to join the King and Queen in Kenya.
There, armed with a graphite stick, a sketch pad and a camera, Mr Butah was tasked with capturing the tour, and the country in his own, unique way.
'Kenya is a beautiful country and the entire trip was magical,' he told Tatler.
'To see the response from the Kenyan people to the King and Queen being there was incredible, you could see and feel how much this visit meant to everyone who had turned out to see them.
'But they work very hard and that is probably something that people don't understand. It is quite gruelling to do a tour like this – meeting all these people and everybody wanting their moment, so you have to be on best form all the time.'
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