Gift-giving to someone whose age is nearing triple digits is always tricky and fraught with danger, and when you add in the fact that the Queen basically has everything under the sun, you have to feel sorry for German president Joachim Gauck.

If we can take one thing from this story let it be that the Queen does not want a modernist portrait of herself riding a garish blue pony. The Telegraph breaks it down one cringe at a time:

President Gauck’s official welcome of the Queen to his country got off to a distinctly awkward start when the monarch reacted with disdain to her official present, an acrylic painting by Nicole Leidenfrost…

“That’s a funny colour for a horse,” said the Queen, who probably knows as much about equine matters as anyone alive.

The monarch also struggled to identify the second figure in the portrait and asked President Gauck: “Is that supposed to be my father?”

The good-natured conversation carried on and Mr Gauck said: “Don’t you recognise him?” The Queen replied: “No.”

Glorious, just glorious. Below is the painting and the photo off of which it was based, a 1930 snap of the Queen on the back of her horse Peggy.

I think the German contingent should just be very thankful that Prince Philip didn’t say something incredibly un-PC about the war.

[source:telegraph]