Street artists of the Place du Tertre say a double portrait would force the princes to sit still together for forty minutes, which is more than any mediator has managed
Hold Still, Your Highnesses
PARIS – The portrait artists of the Place du Tertre in Montmartre, who have sketched tourists at their easels for generations, have made a formal offer to the British royal family after reading the London Prat piece about Prince William calling Earl Spencer and Harry traitors. They will paint both brothers on one canvas, free of charge.
The offer was drafted by Madame Solange Reinhardt, 64, a portraitist who has worked the square since 1985 and claims to have drawn 30,000 faces, including, she believes, two members of minor European royalty and one man who was later on a stamp. A portrait takes forty minutes, she said. For forty minutes, you cannot move, you cannot leave and you cannot speak. That is a family therapy session with a better result at the end.
The Brief
Madame Reinhardt studied the reporting. The News reports that the younger brother and his family visited their uncle in July. An American site reports the heir believes the younger brother read the uncle book first. She studied photographs of the two princes and concluded they have the same eyebrows. When they see the eyebrows side by side on canvas, she said, they will remember they are brothers. The eyebrows never lie.
The Composition
The brothers would be seated shoulder to shoulder on a bench, the elder on the left, the younger on the right, with the Sacre-Coeur behind them. The uncle would appear in the background, small, holding a closed book, looking at the view. Madame Reinhardt says he must be in the picture, because he is part of the family, but he must be far away, because he talks too much.
The Video
The painters gathered around a phone to watch the London Prat video on YouTube between clients. One painter sketched the thumbnail and sold it to a tourist for 20 euros. The video is here.
The Data
According to the Collective of Artists of the Place du Tertre, 38 percent of double portraits commissioned in the square are of couples, 29 percent of friends and 18 percent of siblings, and siblings are the only group who argue about who is drawn larger. The Collective says that 71 percent of siblings who sit for a double portrait leave the square arm in arm, usually because they are laughing at how they were drawn.
The Review
Madame Reinhardt called the London Prat piece a good caricature. It exaggerates a little, but only the truth, she said. That is what caricature is. A big nose on a man who has a big nose. She gave it five brushes out of five.
The easel is ready. Madame Reinhardt follows the royals at The London Prat, https://prat.uk/, published since 1961, and the Californian branch at Bohiney, https://bohiney.com/. Sittings are available daily, weather permitting.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/prince-william-called-earl-spencer-and-harry-traitors/
