Prince George’s Kingfisher Drawing Sparks Questions About Why the Palace Hasn’t Explained Its Origins

Remember Kate Middleton’s 2024 Mother’s Day photo? Kensington Palace released the family picture, only for major news agencies to pull it because it had been altered. Kate apologised and said she had edited it. Not exactly a triumph for the palace PR machine.

Now Prince William has included Prince George’s kingfisher drawing in his guest-edited issue of Country Life. Funny, because when Meghan Sussex guest-edited British Vogue in 2019, Dan Wootton declared that royals don’t guest-edit magazines. Perhaps he meant Black royals aren’t supposed to?

The magazine calls George’s drawing a never-before-seen picture, but readers quickly noticed its resemblance to one an online art instructor shared years ago.

The kingfisher comparison

Country Life presents the drawing as Prince George’s work, with Kensington Palace credited for the image. It shows a blue-and-orange kingfisher perched on a branch, facing left.

Back in June 2019, an instructor on The Virtual Instructor’s community forum shared a coloured-pencil drawing created for an art course. It also shows a blue-and-orange kingfisher, perched on a branch and facing left. Other artists later shared their versions while discussing the lesson.

The similarities are hard to miss. So, did George use the earlier drawing or the course as a reference? We don’t know. The pictures alone can’t tell us how he made his version, and neither Kensington Palace nor Country Life has explained whether he followed a tutorial.

There’s no scandal in a child learning from an art lesson. But a little more context would be welcome when the palace puts his work forward for the world to admire.

The question is about the presentation

Learning from an example is a normal part of making art. A student can follow a lesson, use a reference image and still put time and care into a drawing.

The issue is how the finished picture has been presented to the public. Country Life described it as “never-before-seen” and credited it to George. That tells readers the picture had not previously been published; it does not tell them whether its composition was developed independently or drawn from a lesson.

If a tutorial or another artist’s work was used, that context would help readers understand the drawing’s history. It would also give proper recognition to the person who created the teaching material.

Instead, much of the coverage has focused on praising the young prince’s apparent talent. For a publication with access to the family, asking about the picture’s source should be part of the story too.

A question for the adults and the magazine

George was a child when the drawing was made. The decision to publish and promote it belongs to the adults and the magazine, and that is where questions about the presentation should be directed. Did George follow an art lesson or use the earlier kingfisher as a reference? If so, was Country Life told?

Those are questions for Country Life and Kensington Palace. When the palace offers the public a polished PR glimpse of royal family life, readers are entitled to ask what has been left out.