Official Merkel Portrait Unveiled by the Chancellery at Berlin's Bode Museum

It was not until April 2025 that Merkel invited him for a conversation; after an initial in-person meeting in the summer of 2025, she decided to commission him with the portrait, as emerges from "Zeit"'s reporting. The paper quotes the former chancellor as saying she had immediately had a good impression. The painter later described her as "ein lebensoffener Mensch". From the Chancellery it was reported that suggestions "zu einer alternativen Hängung" of the portraits were under review.

From the Studio by the Pergamon Museum to the Painting

The finished work shows the former chancellor in one of her famous blue blazers against a plain background in a warm gold tone. The characteristic "Merkel diamond" – thumbs and index fingers of both hands touching – was deliberately omitted. The "Zeit" reporter describes the painting thus: "Ein leuchtendes Porträt ist es geworden." Her gaze is bright, "aber allzu begütigend will die Altkanzlerin nicht wirken". Merkel had taken time for the painting over the course of months.

At Tuesday evening's unveiling the painting was reportedly received with applause; Merkel's husband Joachim Sauer sat in the audience. Merkel had long delayed the appointment and, after leaving office in December 2021, had first taken time out, written her memoirs of more than 700 pages – which quickly became a bestseller – and gone on a reading tour. Her book bears the title "Freiheit".

A Woman Among a Line of Men

Speaking with "Die Zeit", the 71-year-old said of the portrait: "Es ist komisch, wenn man langsam Geschichte wird." Pragmatically she added: "Da häng' ich dann eben." In a further quote: "Man bewegt sich ja sonst nur unter Honoratioren. Da ist so ein frischer Blick sehr erfreulich."

The portrait is the eighth work in the collection and the first to depict a woman. It is also the first painting of a person who grew up in the former GDR. The Chancellery's ancestral gallery already displays the portraits of Merkel's seven predecessors: Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl, and Gerhard Schröder. The idea of a portrait gallery of all former federal chancellors goes back to Helmut Kohl, who governed Germany from 1982 to 1998.

The painting of Gerhard Schröder in the gallery was painted by Jörg Immendorff, who depicted Schröder in gold; Immendorff died in 2007. The new painting of Merkel will take its place directly next to Schröder's.

Successor Scholz and Incumbent Merz

Before the portrait takes its place in the gallery of the Federal Chancellery, it will be shown at the Bode Museum in Berlin from 1 July to 4 October. Only thereafter will it move into the Chancellery. Merkel served as Federal Chancellor from November 2005 to December 2021 and was the first woman in the office. After 16 years in office she stepped down on 8 December 2021; in December 2021 she handed over the key of the Chancellery to her successor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

Scholz was Federal Chancellor from 2021 to 2025 and did not complete a full legislative term. As things stand, he has so far not yet commissioned a portrait for the gallery. During his term of office he revealed in April 2024, during a Q&A with schoolgirls at the Chancellery, that he had already given thought to the artist. He had "auch schon eine erste Idee", but did not want to let it slip, he said at the time. Who will paint Scholz's portrait is not yet known.

The incumbent Federal Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, likewise has to wait until after his term of office before being portrayed. Merkel belongs to the CDU.

The Bild newspaper ("Der Tag") wrote of the unveiling: "Da häng ich dann eben". According to that report, little had been known about the portrait prior to the unveiling: the blazer is blue, the diamond is missing, and the former chancellor is said to look a little worn.

Other Portraits of Merkel Over the Years

The Merkel portrait joins a series of well-known depictions of the former chancellor. In 2015 she was portrayed by US painter Colin Davidson; the painting graced the year-end issue of Time Magazine after Merkel had been named "Person of the Year". Two years later US painter Elizabeth Peyton designed the cover of a Vogue issue featuring the then Federal Chancellor. For his portrait series of 30 heads of state and government, former US President George W. Bush also painted the German chancellor.

Until early October the portrait will be presented to a broad audience; thereafter it takes up its permanent place in the Chancellery. The news was broadcast on 30.06.2026 on Deutschlandfunk; the article was written by Birgit Baumann from Berlin.

In the run-up, it had been speculated that the internationally renowned painter Neo Rauch – likewise from eastern Germany like Merkel – might paint the portrait. But Merkel, according to "Die Zeit", deliberately chose a less well-known artist in order to surprise expectations.

Public Exhibition at the Bode Museum

Merkel said of the choice of artist that she had consciously decided against obvious names. With the unveiling at the Bode Museum and the later move into the Chancellery, a search lasting several years for a portrait painter for Germany's first female federal chancellor now reaches its conclusion.

On the background of the decision for Queyras, "Die Zeit" further reports that the artist had explicitly pointed to his abstract orientation in his first letter in 2022, but at the same time stressed his return to classical portraiture. According to Merkel's own account, she quickly came to trust the then 25-year-old.

The exhibition at the Bode Museum on Berlin's Museum Island is open to the public. Visitors can thus see the work before its final location in the Chancellery, where it will hang as part of the official ancestral gallery of all postwar federal chancellors.