Medieval tyrant, Dracula and a tampon: online jokes are made about the new portrait of King Charles III

The internet continues to discuss the first official portrait of King Charles III, which was unveiled yesterday. The portrait by artist Jonathan Yeo surprised many people online with its unusual color scheme - King Charles in a red uniform is depicted against a red background.

The picture immediately gave rise to many memes and photoshopped images: King Charles is compared to the medieval tyrant Vigo of the Carpathians, Dracula from the film by Francis Ford Coppola, and also to Han Solo from Star Wars. The main joke was comparing Karl to... a tampon. The fact is that the network remembered the transcript of a telephone conversation between then-Prince Charles and Camilla, who was his mistress at that moment: Charles then expressed a desire to become her tampon in order to be as close to her as possible.

The portrait of the king was commissioned back in 2020 in honor of the then Prince of Wales's 50th anniversary as a member of The Drapers' Company. The author of the painting has held four meetings with Charles since June 2021. According to the artist, in his work he tried to “reflect the monarchy of the 21st century and convey the deep humanity of the object.” The portrait also depicts a butterfly, it refers to the character of King Charles, who cares about the environment, according to another version - the butterfly symbolizes the prince becoming a king, which can be compared to how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.