British flap over doll-faced Queen painting

A new portrait of Queen Elizabeth that depictsthe monarch as cartoon-like with puffed out cheeks is causing a stir in London.

George Condo, the New York artist who created the lighthearted work, described his painting of the Queen as "a Cabbage Patch doll," in an interview with Reuters.

He added that in creating the work,titledDreams and Nightmares of The Queen, he imagined the image to depict what the British monarch's "nightmare" image of herself would be.

The Condo painting is hanging next to a huge Jackson Pollock canvas at London's Tate Modern museum, after being commissioned by the Wrong Gallery and its curator, Massimiliano Gioni.

The Wrong Gallery, which began as a tiny, non-profit contemporary art exhibition space in New York in 2002, relocated to the Tate Modern in 2005.

Its mandate is to show artists and works that might not otherwise be displayed at the British gallery.

Altogether, Condo completed nine surrealist portraits, with other canvases depicting the Queen with a carrot sticking out of her ears or shaped like a chess piece.

Queen as Velazquez nude?

Condo's original intention was to paint the Queen as a nude in the style of Spanish artist Diego Velazquez's painting Venus at Her Toilet (also known as The Rokeby Venus), which hangs at the National Gallery in London.

The painting depicts the goddess lying on a bed looking into a mirror held by Cupid, with the face of an older woman reflected back at her.

However, Condo was told nude portraits of the Royal Family are not permitted in public institutions.

The Tate Modern has defended Condo's portrait. Buckingham Palace refused comment, with a spokesman telling Reuters: "This is very much a matter for the artist."

Though the Queen did not commission Condo's "Cabbage Patch" Queen painting, any major artwork portraying the monarch usually sparks much discussion in the British media and public.

Past works by Lucien Freud, Rolf Harris, Anthony Williams and Justin Mortimer also drew criticism after their unveilings.