Why does everyone have to paint the Queen looking as horrible as possible? Is it part of the job description to render Her Majesty looking as if she has been subjected to a particularly nasty bout of poisoning, a la Victor Yushchenko? Or is this simply yet another attempt by the artist to get past the cloak of royalty?
The latest effort is by artist Nicky Phipps - who actually previously painted one of the few visually pleasing pictures of William and Harry - and is one of a book of six stamps being issued by the Royal Mail in the UK to celebrate 60 years since the Queen was crowned.
Despite the fact that Phipps's new image is being used for the first-class stamp, it is distinctly second-class, we feel.
By contrast, behold the flattering work of Terence Cuneo in 1953 and, most famously of all, Pietro Annigoni's portrait from 1955.
