It is a fascinating blend
of well-trodden history and social mobility.
Clustered around a
Chippendale sofa in the sunbathed Morning Room of Clarence House, this new
group photograph of the Windsor and Middleton dynasties is arguably the most
intriguing of the christening portraits released yesterday.
Despite the Queen’s presence
and the rather Victorian familial grouping, there is a decidedly relaxed air to
the picture, a portrait of a Royal Family for the modern age. Indeed, aside from the Queen, the most magisterial figure is the Duchess
of Cambridge’s younger brother James, whose beard makes him look uncannily like
his nephew’s great, great, great-grandfather, King George V, or even a younger
looking Prince Michael of Kent.
