En Studie i Rött – En semiotisk undersökning av Jonathan Yeos porträtt HM King Charles III

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the visual representation of the current British monarch based on the red infused royal portrait from 2024 by the artist Jonathan Yeo named HM King Charles III. The questions that will fuel the research is: Which visual elements and symbols are used in the portrait to communicate Charles III’s public royal persona? How does the portrait perform as a visual narrative and what functions do the red colour imply? Drawing on Heinrich Wölfflin’s Principles of Art History as the method of the study and Charles Sanders Peirce’s dynamic semiotic theory of the triadic model of signs, the findings of the study reveal a multifaceted result of how the red colour mirrors inherent British visual language, while also alluding to both ancestral and darker historical themes.