King Charles' Portrait — Close-up of Jonathan Yeo's red-hued oil portrait of King Charles III with a butterfly

King Charles' Portrait

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Published October 27, 2026

Jonathan Yeo's first official portrait of King Charles III, unveiled at Buckingham Palace on May 14, 2024, drew jokes within hours that the bright red canvas showed the monarch burning in hell. By May 15, Photoshop edits placing Charles into deep dish pizza and Star Wars scenes were spreading on X and r/photoshopbattles.

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Overview

Yeo's painting measures roughly 8ft 6in by 6ft 6in and shows Charles in his Welsh Guards uniform holding a sword, with a butterfly about to land on his shoulder1. The red of the uniform fades into an equally red background, so the king's face appears to float inside a crimson haze. That design choice fueled most of the online response: viewers read the red as hellfire rather than regimental symbolism2.

Photoshop versions of King Charles' Portrait typically keep the floating face intact and change what surrounds it. Edits range from fusing Charles into food photography to inserting him into film stills, with the red field standing in for lava, sauce or stage lighting3. The joke works because the composition isolates the face so cleanly that it slots into almost any background without heavy masking.

Origin & Background

Platform
Buckingham Palace unveiling (source), X / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Jonathan Yeo; meme edits by various users
Date
2024

Buckingham Palace unveiled Jonathan Yeo's portrait of King Charles III on May 14, 2024, calling it the first official painted portrait of the king since his May 2023 coronation2. Yeo told the BBC he had aimed for something personal and distinctive, with the red of the Welsh Guards uniform fading into the background to bring the face forward. Queen Camilla saw the canvas during the final sitting and told Yeo, "Yes, you've got him"2. The Welsh Guards reference goes back to Charles' 1975 appointment as the regiment's Colonel, a post Prince William took over in 20231.

How It Spread

Reactions online diverged sharply from the royal family's reported approval3. On the day of the unveiling, X user @MyArrse called the painting "absolutely fecking hideous" and said Charles looked "like he is burning in hell," collecting more than 1,300 retweets and 3,100 likes within a day4. Hours later, @drphiliplee1 described the canvas as "a portal into the nether realm and a conduit for millennia old evil," a parody post that passed 290 retweets5.

Photoshop edits followed on May 15, 2024, including a dedicated thread on r/photoshopbattles8. X user @EmmaTolkin fused Charles' face into a photo of deep dish pizza, picking up over 20 retweets and 340 likes in an hour6. The same day, @scadarts replaced Charles with the Star Wars character Emperor Palpatine7. The Daily Beast documented the hellfire reading in a write-up headlined "Burning in Hell or Very Fine?" that reproduced several of the earliest reactions1.

Timeline

2023-05

Charles III is crowned King of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey.

2024-05-14

Buckingham Palace unveils Jonathan Yeo's oil portrait, the first official painted portrait of Charles since the coronation.

2024-05-14

X user @MyArrse posts that the painting looks "like he is burning in hell," collecting over 1,300 retweets.

2024-05-14

X user @drphiliplee1 jokes that the portrait is "a portal into the nether realm."

2024-05-15

A r/photoshopbattles thread opens for edits of the portrait.

2024-05-15

@EmmaTolkin posts a deep dish pizza edit and @scadarts posts an Emperor Palpatine version.

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How to Use This Meme

Edits of King Charles' Portrait typically keep Charles' face from the Yeo painting and change what the red field becomes. A common convention is choosing a target image that is already mostly red, like pizza sauce, lava or a stage, so the blend reads as effortless. Captions often lean into the hellfire reading, calling the painting a portal, a conduit or a demonic summoning.

Frequently Asked Questions