It’s still bonkers to me that the Duchess of Cambridge organized a birthday portrait photoshoot and hired an Italian fashion photographer, and that she insisted on a white backdrop (even though the portraits were shot at a botanical garden). It’s also bonkers to me to see how Kate barely looks like herself in these photos! The airbrushing wizards and all of that, but yes, she was absolutely doing some Rose Hanbury cosplay. The imagery is just awful too – the Civil War widow realness, the ‘80s mall Glamour Shot and the one where she looks nothing like herself. Painful. Anyway, we now know which portrait will be shown in which location near and dear to Kate’s heart:

Kate Middleton’s birthday portraits are going on tour! The stunning shots of the Duchess of Cambridge, which were taken by fashion photographer Paolo Roversi in November ahead of the royal’s 40th birthday on January 9, will be displayed in venues across the U.K. that have special ties to the royal.

One will be shown near Bucklebury, Berkshire, where she grew up, another will be displayed at the University of St. Andrews, where she and Prince William met and fell in love as freshmen and one will appear in Anglesey, north Wales, where the couple lived as newlyweds.

The portraits will eventually enter the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, of which Kate is Patron. Ahead of the Portrait Gallery’s re-opening in 2023, the photographs will be part of its Coming Home project, a nationwide initiative that sees portraits of well-known individuals being sent to locations that they are closely associated with.

The black-and-white shot of the Duchess of Cambridge looking to the left will be displayed at St. James the Less in the Berkshire village of Pangbourne from March 22 until April 5. From April 7 until June 4, it will then appear at the Reading Museum, which is close to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where Kate was born in 1982. The church “has welcomed the Middleton family as parishioners over several generations and the Reading Museum was chosen due to its proximity to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where The Duchess was born,” the National Portrait Gallery said in a statement.

The striking image of Kate in a red Alexander McQueen gown will be displayed between June 13 and September 30 at the Wardlaw Museum at the University of St. Andrews, where she and William started dating.

The third photo of Kate in a one-shoulder white dress is headed to Anglesey’s Oriel Môn museum between July 16 and October 2. The island, in northwest Wales, is where the couple lived together in their early years of marriage while William worked as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot.

[From People]

A museum close to where she grew up in Bucklebury, a museum in Wales where she lived for a few years as a fiancee and newlywed, and a museum near St. Andrews, where she baited the trap to catch a princely husband. I joked about this in January, but again: why nothing in London or Norfolk? Kate has spent much more time living in London than she ever spent in Wales. Ditto for Norfolk. Think about how weird it is that none of these photos will be exhibited in Norfolk, where Kate’s children took their first steps, where they rode out the pandemic, where William plunges himself into every available rose bu– oh, I get it.

Portraits courtesy of Paolo Roversi/Kensington Palace and covers courtesy of the Times and People.