A portrait banned by Buckingham Palace for 60 years for looking nothing like The Queen has now gone on display at St George’s Hall in Liverpool. The portrait, by John Napper features a likeness of someone who even he conceded doesn’t look like The Queen!
The portrait has spent the last 6 decades locked away in council vaults until now.
This work comes to light shortly after Paul Emsley’s portrait of the Duchess Of Cambridge has received heavy criticism for making the Duchess look old and tired.
The criticism of the portrait by Napper is not necessarily just that the complexion of the face looks nothing like Her Majesty, but that the neck has been heavily extended in the portrait.
Napper, who died in 2001, painted a second portrait of The Queen, with a smaller neck, after the original was rejected by the council. That picture still hangs in Liverpool Town Hall.
Napper’s widow, Pauline, told the Daily Telegraph: “I remember the painting well. He was disappointed with the angle at which he painted it, he only had one sitting.”
The city’s deputy Lord Mayor, Gary Millar, said: “We are very proud that Liverpool now has the original first painting hanging in St George’s Hall, which has been rehung to celebrate the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.
