\n<\/p>\n
Few famous Britons, it seems, can resist the chance to be painted by Jonathan Yeo. David Attenborough, the 97-year-old broadcasting legend, is among those who have recently climbed the spiral stairs to his snug studio, hidden at the end of a lane in West London, to pose for Mr. Yeo, one of Britain\u2019s most recognized portrait artists.<\/p>\n
Yet when it came to painting his latest portrait, of King Charles III, the artist had to go to the subject.<\/p>\n
Mr. Yeo rented a truck to transport his 7.5-by-5.5-foot canvas to the king\u2019s London residence, Clarence House. There, he erected a platform so he could apply the final brushstrokes to the strikingly contemporary portrait, which depicts a uniformed Charles against an ethereal background.<\/p>\n
The painting, which will be unveiled at Buckingham Palace in mid-May, is the first large-scale rendering of Charles since he became king. It will likely reconfirm Mr. Yeo\u2019s status as the go-to portraitist of his generation for Britain\u2019s great and good, as well as for actors, writers, businesspeople and celebrities from around the world. His privately commissioned works can fetch around $500,000 each.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Painting the king\u2019s portrait also marks a return to normalcy for Mr. Yeo, 53, who suffered a near-fatal heart attack last year that he attributes to the lingering effects of cancer in his early 20s. The parallel with his subject is not lost on him: Charles, 75, announced in February that he had been diagnosed with cancer<\/a>, just 18 months into his reign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Yeo said he did not learn of the king\u2019s illness until after he had completed the painting. If anything, his depiction is of a vigorous, commanding monarch. But it gave Mr. Yeo deeper empathy for a man he got to know over four sittings, beginning in June 2021, when Charles was still the Prince of Wales and continuing after the death of his mother<\/a>, Queen Elizabeth II, and his coronation<\/a> last May.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see physical changes in people, depending on how things are going,\u201d Mr. Yeo said in his studio, where he had decorously turned the still-unveiled painting away from the gaze of curious visitors. \u201cAge and experience were suiting him,\u201d he said. \u201cHis demeanor definitely changed after he became king.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The portrait was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Drapers, a medieval guild of wool and cloth merchants that is now a philanthropy. It will hang in Drapers\u2019 Hall, the company\u2019s baronial quarters in London\u2019s financial district, which has a gallery of monarchs from King George III to Queen Victoria. Mr. Yeo\u2019s Charles will add a contemporary jolt to that classical lineup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat Jonny has succeeded in doing is combining the elusive quality of majesty with an edginess,\u201d said Philip Mould, a friend and art historian who has seen the painting and called it \u201csomething of a unicorn.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Yeo is no stranger to depicting royals. He painted Charles\u2019 wife, Queen Camilla, who he said was a delight, and his father, Prince Philip, who was less so. \u201cHe was a bit of a caged tiger,\u201d Mr. Yeo recalled. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine he was easy as a father, but he was entertaining as a subject.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, a sitting monarch was a first for Mr. Yeo, whose subjects have included prime ministers (Tony Blair and David Cameron), actors (Dennis Hopper and Nicole Kidman), artists (Damien Hirst), moguls (Rupert Murdoch) and activists (Malala Yousafzai).<\/p>\n Mr. Yeo said there was an element of \u201cfuturology<\/a>\u201d to his work. Some of his subjects have gone on to greater renown after he painted them; others have faded. A few, like Kevin Spacey, who was tried and acquitted<\/a> on charges of sexual misconduct, have fallen into disrepute. The National Portrait Gallery in Washington returned Mr. Yeo\u2019s Spacey portrait, made when the actor played a ruthless politician in the series \u201cHouse of Cards.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Gazing back over his A-list subjects, Mr. Yeo has developed a few rules of thumb about his art. Older faces are easier to capture than younger ones because they are more lived in. The best portraits capture visual characteristics that remain relevant even as the person ages. And the only bad subjects are boring ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t want me to pose, he just wanted me to talk,\u201d said Giancarlo Esposito, the American actor known for playing elegant villains in the crime classic \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d and the recent Guy Ritchie TV series, \u201cThe Gentlemen.\u201d As an actor, Mr. Esposito said, he was skilled at projecting a persona, \u201cbut there was no way to fool him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an opportunity to be Giancarlo, unmasked,\u201d said Mr. Esposito, who said he last posed for a portrait as a child at a county fair.<\/p>\n