BERLIN — A portrait of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, painted by Jérémie Queyras, has been unveiled at the Bode-Museum in Berlin. The painting will remain on public display at the museum until October, after which it will be moved to the German chancellery.

Merkel, 71, commissioned the portrait herself. Queyras, 28, is a French-born artist who grew up in southern Germany and moved to Berlin last summer to begin work. He sent a handwritten letter to Merkel in 2022 with photocopies of his paintings; she replied three years later, commissioning the work without having seen his originals. The two met secretly in a studio in central Berlin during the painting process.

The painting depicts Merkel wearing a blue blazer, with her left hand resting on the arm of a chair and her right hand hanging down. It includes a silver cube engraved with the phrase "In der Ruhe liegt die Kraft." Merkel served as chancellor for 16 years, leaving office five years ago. She paid for the portrait herself.

"I didn't want to work through such a portrait like a point on a to-do list, I wanted to have joy in such a project," Merkel said. She added, "The reason was simple: I needed distance." Reflecting on the sessions, Merkel said, "We opened up to each other, listened to music and, in the truest sense of the word, talked about God and the world."

Queyras considered the challenge of painting a well-known subject. "How do you paint a person whose face everyone already knows well, who has been photographed thousands of times?" he asked. He added, "I think we were both in agreement that this picture should be different and develop slowly."