© RTL
As part of the throne accession on 3 October, official portraits of Grand Duke Henri will be replaced across Luxembourg with new images of his son Guillaume.
The new official portraits of the future Grand Duke Guillaume were taken by Luxembourgish photographers Kary Barthelmey and Christian Aschman. There are three versions: one of Guillaume alone, one of him in military uniform which will remain under embargo until Friday, and one of Guillaume together with the Hereditary Grand Duchess.
There is no official tally of how many portraits will be replaced, but an order form was made available for institutions to request them. So far around 2,500 orders have been placed, coming from ministries, public administrations, municipalities, businesses and even a few private individuals.
25 years ago, the figure was considerably higher. Cynthia Schwickerath, head of the division for printed material and office supplies at the State Printing Office, itself a part of the Government IT Centre (CTIE), explained that it used to be common practice for every civil servant's office to display a portrait of the Grand Duke. This is no longer the case, and requests now mainly concern official venues where the representative character of the portrait can be appreciated, she said.
There are also some official guidelines for displaying the portraits. They must be hung on a plain white wall with nothing distracting nearby. The mount should be of a certain width and the frame simple yet elegant. Portraits may only be replaced on the day of the accession itself.
The portraits were printed at a private print shop in Luxembourg and have been ready for some time. Priority was given to those destined for overseas use. Schwickerath explained that the Foreign Affairs Ministry's order had been handled first, as portraits needed to be sent out to embassies, consulates, and offices abroad, such as the Luxembourg Investment and Trade Office in Shanghai.
Schwickerath noted that these locations will also be holding events on the day of the accession, so the portraits must be in place in time, and the extra time required for shipping had to be taken into account.
