{"id":234730,"date":"2023-09-05T02:41:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T02:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=234730"},"modified":"2023-09-05T02:41:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T02:41:34","slug":"new-portrait-of-theresa-may-is-unveiled-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/new-portrait-of-theresa-may-is-unveiled-in-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"New portrait of Theresa May is unveiled in Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>New portrait of Theresa May is unveiled in Parliament as artist reveals he wanted \u00a328,000 painting to be a &#8216;psychological characterisation&#8217; of the former Prime Minister<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Read more: Laura Kuenssberg loses viewers after replacing Andrew Marr<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even Theresa May\u2019s staunchest defenders would hardly describe her as a barrel of laughs.<\/p>\n<p>Famously, the Mail\u2019s Quentin Letts asked Mrs May during the 2017 general election campaign whether she felt she was coming across as \u2018a bit of a glumbucket\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>But a new portrait of the former prime minister arguably depicts her looking even more gloomy than she looked in her political heyday.<\/p>\n<p>The painting, by artist Saied Dai, was unveiled at Westminster yesterday and will eventually hang in Portcullis House, Parliament\u2019s offices.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs May is shown wearing a blue suit with a navy coat hanging over her shoulders. She holds a lily of the valley \u2013 a plant associated with the month of May.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/04\/23\/75057361-0-image-a-28_1693867485170.jpg\" height=\"1029\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Captured: The portrait of Theresa May will be displayed in Portcullis House<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/04\/23\/75057359-0-Former_prime_minister_Theresa_May_speaking_in_the_House_of_Commo-a-38_1693867668289.jpg\" height=\"360\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Former prime minister Theresa May speaking in the House of Commons earlier this year<\/p>\n<p>The artist said he tried to convey a \u2018psychological characterisation\u2019 of the former Tory leader as well as a \u2018convincing physical likeness\u2019 in the picture, which was commissioned for \u00a328,000 by the Speaker\u2019s advisory committee on works of art.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Dai explained: \u2018A good painting needs to be a revelation and also paradoxically, an enigma. It should possess an indefinable quality \u2013 in short, a mystery.\u2019 Mrs May said the portrait was a \u2018huge honour\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>MP Dean Russell, chairman of the committee, said: \u2018The Parliamentary Art Collection records those who have made an important contribution to politics and public service.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u2018Few embody this more than Theresa May \u2013 our second female Prime Minister, as well as a devoted Parliamentarian and a dedicated public servant.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>But one Westminster insider said: \u2018It\u2019s really rather grim. Like something that might adorn the walls of the Kremlin at the height of the Soviet era.\u2019 Paintings of former PMs are usually hung in Portcullis House at first as they cannot move to the Palace of Westminster until they have been out of office for two terms.<\/p>\n<p>Saied Dai trained at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and is a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2004 and the New English Art Club.<\/p>\n<h3>Dour piece straight out of Socialist Realism\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>CRITIQUE By Harry Mount\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Forward to victory, my revolutionary brothers! Let the People\u2019s Glorious Leader reign for 1,000 years!<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the impression the former prime minister Theresa May\u2019s portrait by Saied Dai, for Portcullis House, conveys.<\/p>\n<p>With its sharp angles, blocks of bold colour and unsmiling expression, it\u2019s straight out of Socialist Realism \u2013 the school of painting developed by Communist artists in Soviet Russia from 1932 to 1988.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a school still popular with grumpy Little Rocket Man, North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un, who continues to rule in the style of the Russian commies.<\/p>\n<p>Poor Theresa May\u2019s leadership wasn\u2019t quite so supreme, having found herself forced out of Downing Street after a mere three years in the job.<\/p>\n<p>She has a reputation for being one of the most dour politicians of her generation but this painting manages to make her look even more downcast than she is in real life.<\/p>\n<p>Harry Mount taught art history at Sotheby\u2019s Institute of Art<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12480469\/New-portrait-Theresa-unveiled-Parliament.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New portrait of Theresa May is unveiled in Parliament as artist reveals he wanted \u00a328,000 painting to be a &#8216;psychological characterisation&#8217; of the former Prime Minister Read more: Laura Kuenssberg&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New portrait of Theresa May is unveiled in Parliament - lovemainstream.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/new-portrait-of-theresa-may-is-unveiled-in-parliament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New portrait of Theresa May is unveiled in Parliament - lovemainstream.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New portrait of Theresa May is unveiled in Parliament as artist reveals he wanted \u00a328,000 painting to be a &#8216;psychological characterisation&#8217; 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