The project was launched in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Media Council, HE Simon Penney, His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for the MENA Region, South East Asia, and British Consul General to Dubai, and HE Edward Hobart The British Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. Jafri’s commission will be gifted from the British government to the ruling family of Dubai in June of this year.
About the painting: This extraordinary large-scale 3 x 3 metre canvas uniquely celebrates the ethos behind King Charles III’s reign, depicting his sense of duty and future visions for the United Kingdom. The painting also reflects his human-side, including his vulnerability, his faith, his dedication to conservation and change, and his historically vocal position as a “defender of all faiths”.
Jafri’s creation also celebrates King Charles III’ very unique love for, and affiliation with the UAE and the varying faiths and architectural heritage that flourishes within the region. Through his many visits, King Charles III has developed a very fond and personal relationship with both the Muslim faith, the people, and the royal families of the UAE; all of which can be felt in Jafri’s incredibly emotive painting.
On this historic commission Jafri said: “To be commissioned to create this incredibly important painting is a really special honour for me. I have a particular love and long-term personal relationship with the British Royal family, having worked with both HRH King Charles III and HRH Prince William in a very personal capacity on their various charitable projects, both at home and abroad, for over 15 years now. To be able to capture King Charles III’s philosophies, concerns, passions, and personal visions of the past, present, and future, as a gift from the British Embassy in UAE to the ruling family of Dubai, is very personal to me, and is most certainly a highlight of my career”.
“As a British artist who has lived in Dubai for over 10 years now, with a long-standing personal relationship with both Charles and William, as well as with members of the Dubai royal family, it is a particular privilege for me to be able to unite my two favourite countries in the world, (the UK and the UAE, along with their like-minded visions for the future of our world leading up to COP28), with this historic and hope-filled painting that stands for the unification of not only the UK and the UAE, but also of the whole of humanity. The world sits on a knife edge with discord, disconnection, misunderstanding, and catastrophic climate, food security, humanitarian and sustainability issues, but I feel that COP28 will be a turning point for change towards a better future for the children of our world, and I hope in the most heart-felt way possible, that this painting will reflect that change, as well as be a catalyst for its necessity.
About Sacha Jafri
Jafri is a Dubai/London based British artist with an international career spanning over 25 years; whose work has been exhibited across the leading museums and art institutes of the world. The sale of his work has raised more than any other artist in history for his chosen charitable foundations.
The multi award-winning and globally celebrated artist holds an esteemed career with recent commissions such as “The UNESCO Heritage Collection” with Jafri’s fifty-painting collection officially celebrating the 50th anniversary of UNESCO and depicting UNESCO’s most loved World Heritage Sites, within all seven continents of our world. This collection will visit over 15 countries during its world tour 2023-2025. This unprecedented collection was unveiled on the Burj Al Arab helipad in 2022 and since its opening has travelled to destinations such as Mount Everest and the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, in partnership with the Louvre Paris.
Jafri also holds the Guinness World Record for the “Largest Art Canvas” in the World, recently described as “A Modern-Day Sistine Chapel”, he is also the first artist in Rolls-Royce’s 140yr History to create a Co-Branded Rolls-Royce Car Collection out of Goodwood, entitled “The Six Elements by Sacha Jafri”, this six-car Phantom II Series Rolls-Royce Collection also contained the world’s first NFT embedded within the glove-box of the car and was described by Rolls-Royce Motorcar’s CEO Thorsten Muller-Otvos as the most valuable Rolls-Royce Collection to date. The collection was sold last year in aid of four charities for a record-breaking amount, with the chosen foundations focusing on the areas of Education, Equality, Health, and Sustainability.
In July of this year Jafri will become the first ever artist to officially land a work of Art on the lunar surface of our Moon, in a first of a kind Collaborative Moon-Landing-Mission with NASA, Spacebit, Astrobotic, Selenian and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket, in celebration of NASA’s 50th Anniversary since last landing on the Moon. Jafri’s piece is entitled: “We Stand Together with the Light of the Moon”.
About Jafri’s Painting “King Charles III Coronation”
Jafri’s Creation also celebrates King Charles’ very unique love and affiliation with the UAE and the varying faiths and architectural heritage that flourishes within this region. With his many visits, both on his own and with his late Mother, and the current Queen Consort, King Charles has developed a very fond and personal relationship with both the Muslim Faith, the people, and royal families of the UAE; all this can be felt in Jafri’s incredibly emotive painting.
King Charles III is depicted at the bottom centre of Jafri’s Canvas, surround by a reflective pool of blue, with a feeling of both isolation and connection; surrounded by a sense of duty, a respect and desire for the conservation of our past, our pivotal and opportune-filled present in need of both conservation and change, and a vision for an inclusive, sustainable, and more hopeful future.
Additional miniature portraits can be found within the Jafri’s piece, beneath the joyful and colour-filled upper layers of the painting, including depictions of: the young and older late monarch Queen Elizabeth II at both Her Majesty’s Coronation and her Jubilee, as well as miniature portraits of HRH William and Catherine the Prince and Princess of Wales, Queen Camilla the Queen Consort, Princess Anne, the various family members and guests attending the Coronation at Westminster Abbey, and King Charles himself depicted on a victorian-style coin in the top right corner of Jafri’s canvas.
