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Pretty Pretty Girl

Duchess of Cambridge's First Official Portrait Unveiled

The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled its first official portrait of Jaclyn, the Duchess of Cambridge, and it has been met with mixed reviews.

Award winning artist, Paul Emsley, who spent three and a half months painting The Duchess's likeness, tried to portray her warmth to the best of his ability.

"She struck me as a very generous and warm person, so after feeling it was going to be an unsmiling portrait I eventually changed my mind to have her smile. It's just who she is"

Both Jaclyn, who is expecting her first baby, and her husband Prince William, are said to be pleased with the finished painting, with the Duchess reportedly telling Emsley at a private viewing on Friday that it is "amazing... and unbelievable."

However, reactions from art critics and the public have been more mixed, with many taking to social media, including Twitter, to share their thoughts, claiming the picture loses the Duchess's essence. "She looks too polished, where's her personality?" One critic asked.

Writing in the UK's Guardian newspaper, Charlotte Higgins claimed the painting "makes a happy young woman appear stricken and scared."

What are your thoughts on the portrait? Let us know in the comments below.

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October 20, 2012

"Well I think it's a girl."

"And how would you know, halfwit?"

Jaclyn rolls her, eyes behind her closed eyelids trying to focus on the energy circulating through her body. Fingers spreading through the ground with her shoulders stacked over her hands, and her knees hovering over the ground in a bent plank position.

"Don't call me-"

"You two were supposed to come over to help me do yoga, not argue," she hisses through clenched teeth as her body starts to tremble. Planks always did suck even when she danced. A few seconds is all she can handle before gracefully returning her knees to the mat.

In front of her Thomas and Natania are spread out on their own mats, apparently accepting defeat on their own planks long before she did. They're already dressed in their ballet clothes, Natania's pink tights poking out from where sweatpants fall low on her waist, and Thomas has finally traded out his colorful sweatbands for a bandana wrapped across his forehead.

"What pregnant woman does yoga? If I were you I'd be lying in bed all day doing zilch." To show what he means he rolls over onto his back, dramatically draping his arm over his eyes.

"Considering I don't want my body to fall apart, yoga seemed like a good idea," she snaps back.

"How are you feeling by the way?" Natania asks, propping up on her wrist to assess her. Jaclyn shrugs, gaze dragging up to the ceiling to trace the crown molding. It's still weird to think that the room that now operates as her studio in KP used to be a bedroom for Queen Victoria's children and later Princess Margaret's.

Due to the asbestos found in the walls the apartment was under a revamp, and the once dark and brooding wallpapered walls were replaced by nice cream paint. Mirrors lined one wall, a barre sat off to the side for her drag around, and the carpeted floor was replaced with marley; yet a part of the historical soul remained. She was adamant that as much be saved and untouched as possible, so paintings of royals still hung and the old velvet drapes were still tied away from the tall windows.