Revealed, painting of Kate that Royal couple fell in love with at first sight
(Now they’re squabbling over who keeps it)
WHEN the first official portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge was unveiled, it was blasted by art critics as ‘catastrophic’, ‘rotten’ and making ‘a pretty young woman look less pretty and less young’.
But the portrait by Paul Emsley also provoked a spontaneous reaction from Scottish artist Tom Sutton-Smith, who decided to paint his own picture of Kate.
But after showing it to friends, he put it away in his garage – little realising that it would be presented to Kate herself when she and her husband Prince William visited Perthshire.
And the couple, known in Scotland as the Earl and Countess of Strathearn, were so impressed that they ended up having a friendly argument over who should keep it when it arrives at Kensington Palace.
‘Wow, it’s brilliant!’ said William, on being presented with the picture at an exhibition in Forteviot village hall. ‘That’s going up in my room.’
Glenys Andrews of Perthshire Open Studios, who presented the picture, revealed: ‘The Countess’s face lit up. She was wowed by it.
‘Then William and Catherine had a bit of a playful argument. Catherine said she wanted it in her room. They both clearly liked it.’
Perth-based Mr Sutton-Smith, who went to the Edinburgh College of Art, spent a career in advertising in Scotland and Canada, where he lived for 27 years, working for top brands such as Kelloggs, Benson and Hedges and Kraft.
Glasgow-born Mr Emsley took 15 weeks to paint the Duchess after being selected from a shortlist by Kate herself.
Mr Sutton-Smith took just two weeks to complete his version, which he showed to friends and members of Kinross and District Art Club but then put away in his garage. Mrs Andrews said: ‘When Emsley’s portrait went up at the National Gallery, everyone who knows Tom said, “You can do better than that.” And he did.
‘When we were asked to curate this exhibition, and to present a gift, I remembered Tom’s stunning portrait. So I called him and asked if he still had it. Fortunately, he said he had in his garage somewhere.’
Yesterday Mr Sutton-Smith said: ‘I did it as a spontaneous reaction to Paul Emsley’s work. His was a fair likeness but I did not think he captured her personality.’