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(Image: Paul Emsley / PA)

Kate Middleton described it as “amazing” but it seems not everyone agrees with the Duchess’s verdict on her first official portrait .

Some art critics claim the Paul Emsley painting makes photogenic Kate look old and dowdy and does not resemble her in real life.

So in true Twitter style, just hours after it was unveiled at the national portrait gallery, the portrait had fallen victim to the viral treatment.

Some pranksters gave the image a Celia Gimenez makeover – replacing Kate with the ‘monkey face’ the 80-year-old Spanish woman painted over a 19th century fresco of Jesus in her botched attempt at restoring it.

Other web jokers appeared to have subjected the picture of the usually slim to the smartphone ‘FatBooth’ app, giving her chubby cheeks and a huge double chin.

Following criticism that the portrait was too dark and eerie, some photoshoppers replaced Kate’s face with that of Ghostbuster’s villain Vigo the Carpathian.

Other’s superimposed the portrait over a Twilight advert, dubbing Kate the “Grandmother of the Vampires”.

Emsley's efforts have been praised for their "informality" but have also been criticised for being "pretty ordinary".

Kate's response to the work after seeing it privately with her husband the Duke of Cambridge was to say: "It's just amazing, I thought it was brilliant," while the Duke described it as "absolutely beautiful".

Emsley was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and was chosen by its director Sandy Nairne following a selection process which involved the Duchess.