King Charles III

 

 

Royally

Had a heart attack while painting the king
Jonathan Yeo's heart stopped when he created the portrait

Jenny Alexandersson

Published 07.41

Jonathan Yeo, 53, painted the very first official portrait of King Charles.

It has been widely criticized and during the creation process he suffered a heart attack.

- I had an out-of-body experience where I was led away to see another world and I realized I was looking down on something chaotic, Jonathan Yeo told the Sunday Times.
Quick version

• Artist Jonathan Yeo suffered a heart attack while creating the first official portrait of King Charles, a work that caused strong reactions.
• Yeo worked on the portrait for four years and gave it a controversial blood-red background, leading to criticism that it symbolizes the bloody history of the British Empire.
• Yeo's heart attack, which led to an out-of-body experience, may have influenced his choice of color, but the artist dismisses criticism and stands by his decision.            
  

Jonathan Yeo worked on the painting for four years before it was unveiled by King Charles last week.

The king's face appears through a sea of scarlet color and the red background has caused many to criticize the regent's first official portrait.

- He is engrossed in the carnage of the British Empire of yore, their centuries of colonial genocide, plunder, enforced starvation, rape, slavery, creation of new borders, theft of lands, plantations, taxes, gold mines, diamond mines, cobalt mines, oil, which amount to trillions! writes one of the critics on Instagram.

Others joke that the king wanted to be Queen Camilla's tampon in a wiretapped conversation that made huge headlines in the British tabloids in 1993.

King Charles unveiled the first official portrait of him as regent. Next to him is the artist Jonathan Yeo. Photo: TT

Collapsed when the ambulance arrived

Now the artist Jonathn Yeo reveals that he suffered a heart attack last March while he was in the middle of the process of painting the king.

He had premonitions that something was wrong with his heart on a quiet Sunday afternoon and that he collapsed just as the ambulance arrived.

During the out-of-body experience, he had to choose between two worlds. Since he did not feel finished with everything on earth, he chose to come back.

- The same second you make the decision, you are back in your body with a health care provider who says "Stay with me", says Jonathan Yeo to the Sunday Times.

He admits that the choice of the red background color may well be psychological and related to his heart attack.

- But it wasn't a conscious choice - I just felt: I love this color.

The first official portrait of Charles since becoming king was painted by artist Jonathan Yeo. Photo: TT

"The painting is terrifying"

The painting in question has aroused very strong reactions even among art critics. Some consider it banal, others that it is brilliant.

- It is a confusing, haunting, oversized and inexplicably terrifying portrait of King Charles III. And after trying to like it (a critic's first responsibility), I've realized it's just as bad as I first thought, writes award-winning art critic Sebastian Smee in the Washington Post.

But Jonathan Yeo shakes off the worst criticism.

- There are always people who disagree with you about how you should paint these things

Jonathan Yeo, 53, målade det allra första officiella porträttet av kung Charles.