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Kate Middleton’s first official portrait was widely lampooned, but its artist, Paul Emsley, defended his work and maintains that he is quite pleased with it.

Nevertheless, he says he’s going to create a second portrait, capturing the pregnant royal in a more “glamorous and upbeat” fashion this time around.

It’s unclear how he plans to do that, or when he’ll make it happen, but we recommend a glowing Kate Middleton baby bump portrait … not that it matters.

Kate, Will, Elizabeth

He says there will be NO PHOTOS of the second portrait allowed!

 

After some of the serious backlash he received, that’s not entirely surprising.

To say people were not fans of the original is an understatement. The work was almost universally panned by the public, and memed all over the Internet.

Why? One of the criticisms of Kate’s official portrait was that it made her look older than her 31 years. It may also be the first non-gorgeous image of her ever.

“I did not deliberately age her or anything like that,” Emsley clarified.

“I wanted it to be an authentic record, but it’s very easy to put in more shadows and things than are perfectly necessary, and I haven’t done that.”

“I’ve tried to record, in a polite way, what I regard as natural beauty. There’s a quotation an American friend of mine, the wife of an American artist, sent me in support.”

“When Picasso was told his portrait of Gertrude Stein did not look like her, his response was, ‘It will.’ People become acclimatized over time to something which is not what they were expecting.”

Acclimatized or not, we won’t get the chance the second time. There will be no photos allowed when and if it is put on display next to the original.