Duchess of Cambridge portrait by Paul Emsley is unveiled at the National portrait gallery

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the National portrait gallery to see Catherine's new portrait by artist Paul Emsley. The pregnant Duchess looked in high spirits as she arrived at the gallery for a private viewing this morning ahead of the public unveiling.

Kate, on her first official outing for almost a month, was far more polite. ‘It’s just amazing. Absolutely brilliant,’ she told the artist, Paul Emsley, when she met him at the National Portrait Gallery, where the picture will hang.

Her husband, Prince William, nodded sagely. ‘It’s beautiful, it’s absolutely beautiful,’ he concurred. From others, however, the biggest criticism seemed to be the generally ageing nature of the portrait, which took three and a half months to produce. Most seemed to think it makes the duchess, who turned 31 this week, look at least 15 years older.

The National Portrait Gallery, of which Kate is patron, drew up a shortlist of four painters but the duchess, who graduated from St Andrews with a 2:1 in history of art and previously studied at the British Institute in Florence, plumped for Mr Emsley.