(CAMBRIDGE, England) — Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visited a museum in Cambridge, England, Thursday to view their first official joint portrait.
“It’s quite big,” William said upon seeing the portrait of himself and his wife, which was painted by award-winning British portrait artist Jamie Coreth.
William and Kate, both 40, viewed the portrait during a visit to the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum.
The portrait of the Cambridges will be on display to the public at the museum for the next three years, and will then travel to other local galleries as well as the National Portrait Gallery in London.
While at the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Cambridges’ portrait will be used “as a means of encouraging children and young people of all backgrounds from across the county to take an interest in art in all its forms,” according to Kensington Palace.
In the portrait, William is wearing a dark suit and blue tie, while Kate is wearing an emerald green dress by The Vampire’s Wife.
The dress appears to be the same one Kate wore to an evening reception at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin in 2020.
The new portrait of the Cambridges was commissioned last year by the Cambridgeshire Royal Portrait Fund as a gift to Cambridgeshire, a county in eastern England.
Coreth, the portrait artist, described the painting as a “gift for the people of Cambridgeshire.”
“It has been the most extraordinary privilege of my life to be chosen to paint this picture,” Coreth said in a statement. “I wanted to show Their Royal Highnesses in a manner where they appeared both relaxed and approachable, as well as elegant and dignified.”
He continued, “As it is the first portrait to depict them together, and specifically during their time as The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, I wanted the image to evoke a feeling of balance between their public and private lives. The piece was commissioned as a gift for the people of Cambridgeshire, and I hope they will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed creating it.”
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