South African artist gets knocks for Kate's first portrait

South African artist, Paul Emsley’s golden opportunity to paint the first official public portrait of The Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton have met with some hard knocks. 

The portrait, currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London, according to sources, has been receiving rains of condemnation from critics.

Paul Emsley’s portrait of The Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton

  Like the criticism, from western press, unleashed on our own Late Ben Enwonwu’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Emsley, a 2007 winner of the prestigious BP Portrait Award is having his own hard time.

Excerpts: 
“It looks as if the painter asked the subject to ‘say cheese!’ and then told her to scram and buy some clothes while he painted the photograph,” a former editor of Art Review magazine, David Lee said in The Daily Mail.

 “The painting made the duchess look like a character in one of the 'Twilight' movies,” The Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins writes.

Daily Telegraph's critic, Mark Hudson compared the work to a

 “Mawkish book illustration.”

The portrait was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery yesterday, Friday, January 11, 2013.

Although the portrait, from a soft copy and online viewing, makes Kate almost competing with the cheeky British singer, Adele, but it’s not exactly a bad work.