Angela Merkel officially completed her 16-year tenure as chancellor of Germany on December 8, 2021. But she waited several years after leaving office before commissioning an artist to paint a portrait of her for the official gallery of former German leaders.
Merkel presented the painting on Tuesday evening. The portrait shows her in front of a golden background, gazing off into the distance in one of her signature blazers, this one a vibrant blue.
Before being added to the Federal Chancellery gallery, where all former postwar German heads of government are immortalized, Merkel's new portrait will be displayed at the Bode Museum in Berlin from July 1 to October 4.A young artist gets a big break
For the work, Merkel selected a previously little-known artist, Jeremie Queyras, who was born in Paris in 1997 and raised in Freiburg.
According to German weekly Die Zeit, the 28-year-old German-French painter had first approached Merkel in 2022, informally contacting her with a handwritten letter that included copies of his work.
