Jérémie Queyras, the artist, said he hoped viewers would ‘immediately recognise [Angela] Merkel in the picture’. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty View image in fullscreen Jérémie Queyras, the artist, said he hoped viewers would ‘immediately recognise [Angela] Merkel in the picture’. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Angela Merkel Portrait of Angela Merkel unveiled at museum in Berlin Painting by Jérémie Queyras shows former German chancellor in trademark jacket – at a time of nostalgia for her rule
Prefer the Guardian on Google Over months they met secretly in a studio in the government quarter of central Berlin – a young artist and his subject, the former German chancellor Angela Merkel. For hours at a time, while Jérémie Queyras painted her portrait, they bonded, Merkel has said, chatting “about all and sundry”. Sometimes they were silent, or they listened to classical music, taking it in turns to let each other choose the pieces.
The result of what Merkel, 71, called their “little adventure” was unveiled to an invited audience of family, friends and a handful of art critics this week in the neo-baroque Bode-Museum in Berlin.
View image in fullscreen The painting will be on public display at the Bode-Museum until October. It will then be moved to the chancellery. Photograph: Axel Schmidt/Reuters Famous for its old master paintings and sculptures, the museum is now also a temporary home to the looming image of the former chancellor, clad in a blue version of one of her many trademark blazers with big buttons. She looks a little cramped, her face slightly frayed; a sign, perhaps, that the strain of being in power for 16 years has left a permanent mark.
Queyras, 28, said he would “never have come up with the idea himself” but was persuaded to write to Merkel by an acquaintance, who had bought some of his works and knew the former leader would be searching for a portrait artist.
“I thought: who in the world knows me?” Queyras told Die Zeit. Nevertheless, he sent Merkel a handwritten letter in 2022, enclosing some colour photocopies of his paintings. He waited three years for a reply. When the two met in her Berlin office, Queyras said she ignored his “scruffy sneakers” and gave him the commission, having never laid eyes on any of his original works but saying he had made a “good impression”.
View image in fullscreen Merkel and Queyras (right) discussed the meaning of a portrait and why an oil painting was preferable to a photograph. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty The painter and multidisciplinary artist, who was born in Paris but grew up in southern Germany , admitted he had felt a little overwhelmed by the task and had shared his doubts with Merkel. The two discussed what the meaning of a portrait was and why an oil painting was preferable to a photograph. She advised him to take the time to decide whether he really wanted the job, warning him that his life after the painting would be very different.
According to Die Zeit, she said he might feel the resentment of other artists who hadn’t got the commission and even hate from the far right, who view Merkel as the “agent of doom” and could pursue him with suspicion.
In preparation, Merkel arranged for Queyras to have secret access to the chancellery so he could view the gallery of portraits of her seven male predecessors that hang in a gallery of post-second-world-war German leaders, from Konrad Adenauer to Gerhard Schröder.
Perhaps most strikingly, Merkel is reported…