Art critics and politicians could not conceal their scorn yesterday at the new official portrait of Gerhard Schröder, the former Chancellor of Germany, which is to be hung alongside the more conventional pictures of his predecessors in the Berlin Chancellery. “There are statues of Elvis Presley that look like this,” sneered Holger Liebs of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Siberian oligarchs and Californian rappers have a need — alongside their collection of Rolex watches — to immortalise themselves in this manner.”

He suggested that the image — dubbed the “Golden Gerhard” — could be put on to a medallion, in the manner of Lenin badges, and be presented to Social Democratic party members.

It is traditional for outgoing German chancellors to commission an artist for a final official portrait; the State buys it as a farewell gift to the retiring leader and hangs it to give a sense of history to the otherwise anonymous corridors of the Chancellery. Mr Schröder chose Jörg Immendorf as his portraitist, a provocative artist who usually mocks politicians.

The painter fell into disrepute after being found in a hotel bedroom with lines of cocaine and no fewer than 12 prostitutes. The former chancellor decided to give him a chance to wipe out the memory of this unfortunate episode.

What has emerged is a baffling icon-like image of Mr Schröder. In the foreground there is a melting black eagle — symbol of the German State — and a broken man. The figure is almost certainly a reference by Mr Immendorf to his own physical frailty: he is suffering from a degenerative disease and can no longer hold a paintbrush. In an ironic reference to fellow artists, he also slipped in a pack of monkeys.

The painting was carried out by his students to his instructions. The backdrop is made to look like marble, but some critical interpretations yesterday likened it to spiderwebs or flashes of lightning emerging from Mr Schröder’s brain.

“I like it,” the former chancellor said after a visit to Mr Immendorf’s atelier. “It’s quite different from anything that has been done before.”

Mr Schröder’s fellow politicians were less generous. “The colour of the painting is only appropriate because he has gilded his future by working for Gazprom,” said Hans Joachim Otto, cultural expert of the Free Democrats, referring to the former chancellor’s lucrative retirement job.

Problem heads

The painter of Helmut Kohl was advised to make his body less massive. The portrait now has a very large head on a strangely shrunken physique

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