We knew that portrait would come back to bite King Charles some day, but even so we didn’t expect it to happen quite like this.
Charles III got the world talking this past May with the reveal of a new Royal portrait — the first commissioned since he became king — that seemed to depict him sitting on the throne of hell rather than the throne of England. As painted by artist Jonathan Yeo, the — let’s say — striking piece seemed to give the King a full Viggo the Carpathian makeover, with the painting appearing so nightmarish, so possessed by evil, I’m surprised the Ghostbusters haven’t opened up a London branch.
So, arguably, the protesters that decided to spruce up the painting by adding some Aardman flavor to it probably did the world a favor.
On June 11, animal rights protesters stormed the Philip Mould Gallery in London and covered the King’s portrait with an image of Wallace, everyone’s favorite Plasticine cheese-aphile, from Wallace & Gromit. The two protesters, from the Animal Rising group, added a speech bubble reading, “No cheese, Gromit. Look at all the cruelty in RSPCA farms!”
The RSPCA is said to be “shocked by this vandalism” and has blasted it as a distraction from the organization’s efforts to help animals.
“We remain confident that our RSPCA Assured scheme is the best way to help farmed animals right now, while campaigning to change their lives in the future,” said a spokeswoman in a statement to the BBC.
(Un)Fortunately, no damage has been done to the painting, as assured to the public by the gallery. Likewise, Animal Rising has confirmed its supporters and activists use water to stick their posters to the glass protecting artwork such as this, so the King of Hell portrait remains entirely untouched. The Philip Mound gallery has stated that the whole incident was taken care of very speedily, without the need for the police.
But why Wallace and Gromit? Daniel Juniper, one of the two protesters involved, revealed the thinking behind the attention-grabbing act while speaking to the press:
“With King Charles being such a big fan of Wallace and Gromit, we couldn’t think of a better way to draw his attention,” said Juniper.
Yes, it looks like Queen Camilla is to blame for this defacing of her husband’s face, albeit indirectly. Back in 2012, Camilla revealed that King Charles is a huge fan of the Aardman animated characters, claiming that the duo — due to star in a new short film, titled Vengeance Most Fowl, this Christmas — were his “favorite people in the world.”
Let’s hope this whole endeavor hasn’t soured the King’s adoration of Aardman and he’ll still be able to stick on The Curse of the Were-Rabbit to cheer himself up next time there’s another Royal debacle (i.e. tomorrow).