Winston Churchill was introduced to painting during a family holiday in June 1915, when his political career was at a low ebb. He continued this hobby into his old age, painting over 500 pictures of subjects such as his goldfish pond at Chartwell and the landscapes and buildings of Marrakesh. He sold some works, but he also gave away many of the works that he self-deprecatingly described as "daubs" as gifts.
In May 1915, in the wake of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign for which Churchill was widely held to be responsible, he had been removed from his post as First Lord of the Admiralty with demotion to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was somewhat depressed about that turn of events and was worried about the direction his career might take in the future. In June, he hired Hoe Farm, a country house in Hascombe near Godalming in Sussex, for a holiday with various members of his family, one of whom was his sister-in-law, Lady Gwendoline ("Goonie") Churchill (1885–1941), his brother's wife. Goonie was an amateur artist and Churchill watched her painting a watercolour. She invited him to take her brush and try it for himself. He was immediately captivated and painting became a lifelong hobby. He freely admitted that it revived his spirits and, as with writing, became an antidote to his frequent bouts of depression. He began with watercolour but soon applied himself to oils. [3] [4]
Churchill took painting materials to the Western Front when he went on active military service in 1915–16, painting the towns and landscape near Ploegsteert Wood in Flanders where he commanded the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers. He continued to paint after he returned to government as Minister of Munitions in 1917. [5]
He received direction and encouragement from several professional artists, including his London neighbour Sir John Lavery, and later also Walter Sickert, William Nicholson and Paul Maze. His Portrait of Sir John Lavery in his Studio was shown at the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London in 1919. [6]
Churchill became Secretary of State for the Colonies in February 1921. [7] The following month, the first public exhibition of his paintings was held at the Galerie Druet in Paris, with Churchill exhibiting under his pseudonym of "Charles Morin". [8] [9] [10] Several of his landscape works were sold, at £30 each. He painted the pyramids when he visited Egypt as Secretary of State for the Colonies for the Cairo Conference in 1921, to determine arrangements for the government of Iraq and Transjordan under British control. [5]
He wrote about his enjoyment of painting in two articles published in The Strand Magazine in December 1921 and January 1922, Hobbies and Painting as a pastime, for which he was paid £1,000. His essays were republished several times in different publications in the following years. [11] [12]
In September 1922, Churchill's fifth and last child, Mary, was born, and in the same month he purchased Chartwell, in Kent, which was the family home for the rest of his life. He constructed a studio at Chartwell in the 1930s, laying the bricks himself. The house and its gardens became a frequent source of inspiration for his paintings and Mary, who became Mary Soames, went on to write Winston Churchill: His Life as a Painter (1990) as a record of her father's art. [13]
Soon afterwards, Churchill underwent an operation for appendicitis. While he was in hospital, the Conservatives withdrew from David Lloyd George's coalition government, precipitating the November 1922 general election, in which Churchill lost his seat in Dundee. [14] He later wrote that he was "without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix". [15] He spent much of the next six months at the Villa Rêve d'Or near Cannes, where he devoted himself to painting and writing The World Crisis , his memoirs of World War I. [16]
He was re-elected to Parliament on 29 October 1924, as Member of Parliament for Epping, and was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. [17] This role curtailed his hobbies somewhat but he continued to paint whenever possible, as when he took a lengthy Mediterranean holiday in January 1927, visiting Malta, Naples, Athens and Rome. [18]
Churchill claimed to have painted only one picture while serving as British Prime Minister during the Second World War, Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque , a view of Marrakesh and the Atlas Mountains, painted from the balcony of the Villa Taylor while on an excursion with the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. He later gave this painting of the Kutubiyya Mosque to Roosevelt as a memento of their time together. It was sold by Roosevelt's son Elliott in 1950. [19] It was bought privately by Angelina Jolie in 2011 and subsequently sold at Christie's in 2021 for £7 million (£8.285M including buyer's premium). [19] [20]
Using the pseudonym "David Winter", Churchill submitted paintings for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1947 and 1948, having works selected each year. The Royal Academy of Arts elected Churchill as an "Honorary Academician Extraordinary" in 1948. [21] His book Painting As A Pastime was published by Odhams Press in 1948, based on his 1921–22 Strand essays and illustrated with 18 colour plates of his works. [12]
Water, still, bubbling, or agitated by wind; snow, immaculate and crisp; trees, dark with the density of their foliage or dappled by sunlight; fresh flowers; distant mountains, and, above all, sunlight at its fiercest.
- John Rothenstein on the “beauties of nature” which most inspired Churchill. [22]
In 1954, in a collection of essays published to mark Churchill’s eightieth birthday, Sir John Rothenstein, art historian and Director of The Tate, contributed an appraisal of Churchill as an artist. He described a visit to the Chartwell studio in 1949, recording his alarm when, in response to a criticism of a picture painted twenty years before, Churchill began assembling paints and brushes to undertake a reworking. [23] In his appreciation, Rothenstein noted Churchill’s lack of formal training and his limitations as a painter, but praised “the skilful choice of subjects within his range, to which he respond[ed] ardently. In these there comes surging irrepressibly up his sheer joy in the simple beauties of nature”. [lower-alpha 1] [25] [See box.]
The "Churchill, the Painter" exhibition toured museums in North America in 1958, and was also shown at the Royal Academy in early 1959. Some U.S. galleries were dismissive: the assistant director of the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh said "I understand that Churchill is a terrific bricklayer too, but nobody is exhibiting bricks this season"; the director of the Art Institute of Chicago observed that "We have certain professional standards." [21]
In 1967, the art historian David Coombs published a catalogue raisonné of Churchill's works, entitled Churchill: his paintings. The catalogue contains illustrations of, and details about, each of over 500 paintings known to have been undertaken by Churchill at the time of publication. [26]
An exhibition of 105 Churchill paintings, held by Sotheby's in London in early 1998, was visited by 12,000 people in two weeks. [27]
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
Walter Richard Sickert was a Bavarian-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the mid and late 20th century.
Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson was a British painter of still-life, landscape and portraits. He also worked as a printmaker in techniques including woodcut, wood-engraving and lithography, as an illustrator, as an author of children's books and as a designer for the theatre.
Chartwell is a country house near Westerham, Kent, in South East England. For over forty years it was the home of Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his death in January 1965. In the 1930s, when Churchill was out of political office, Chartwell became the centre of his world. At his dining table, he gathered those who could assist his campaign against German re-armament and the British government's response of appeasement; in his study, he composed speeches and wrote books; in his garden, he built walls, constructed lakes and painted. During the Second World War, Chartwell was largely unused, the Churchills returning after he lost the 1945 election. In 1953, when again prime minister, the house became Churchill's refuge when he suffered a debilitating stroke. In October 1964, he left for the last time, dying at his London home, 28 Hyde Park Gate, on 24 January 1965.
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While legally the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier, her mother Lady Blanche's known infidelity and his suspected infertility make her paternal parentage uncertain.
Major John Strange Spencer-Churchill, known as Jack Churchill, was the younger son of Lord Randolph Churchill and his wife Jennie, and the brother of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Winston Churchill.
Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Though he covered many subjects – ranging from landscapes in France to representations of Jewish synagogues in London – he is perhaps best known for his work as a war artist in both world wars, his portraits, and his popular memoirs, written in the 1930s. More than two hundred of Rothenstein's portraits of famous people can be found in the National Portrait Gallery collection. The Tate Gallery also holds a large collection of his paintings, prints and drawings. Rothenstein served as Principal at the Royal College of Art from 1920 to 1935. He was knighted in 1931 for his services to art. In March 2015 'From Bradford to Benares: the Art of Sir William Rothenstein', the first major exhibition of Rothenstein's work for over forty years, opened at Bradford's Cartwright Hall Gallery, touring to the Ben Uri in London later that year.
John George Spencer-Churchill was an English painter, sculptor, and stockbroker who was the nephew of Sir Winston Churchill.
David John Coombs is a British author, historian, and teacher. He is a former editor of the Antique Collector and was a columnist for the British weekly trade magazine, Antiques Gazette.
Winston Churchill's Conservative Party lost the July 1945 general election, forcing him to step down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. For six years he served as the Leader of the Opposition. During these years he continued to influence world affairs. In 1946 he gave his "Iron Curtain" speech which spoke of the expansionist policies of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Eastern Bloc; Churchill also argued strongly for British independence from the European Coal and Steel Community; he saw this as a Franco-German project and Britain still had an empire. In the General Election of 1951, Labour was defeated.
The Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill is a five star hotel located on Portman Square, north of Marble Arch in central London, England. It is owned by The Churchill Group Ltd and is currently operated by Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
Sir Winston Churchill, son of Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill, and grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945 and 26 October 1951 – 6 April 1955.
Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941. She was the wife of Conservative politician Christopher Soames.
Paul Lucien Maze was an Anglo-French painter. He is often known as “The last of the Post Impressionists" and was one of the great artists of his generation. His mediums included oils, watercolours and pastels and his paintings include French maritime scenes, busy New York City scenes and the English countryside. He is especially noted for his quintessentially English themes: regattas, sporting events and ceremonial celebrations, such as racing at Goodwood, Henley Regatta, Trooping the Colour and yachting at Cowes.
The Portrait of Winston Churchill was a painting by English artist Graham Sutherland that depicted the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, created in 1954. It was disliked by Churchill and eventually destroyed shortly after.
Alfred Ernest Egerton Cooper, RBA, ARCA, was a British painter of portraits, landscapes and other figurative work. In the era of Modernism, he continued to work in traditional style from his studio in Chelsea, London.
Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque is an oil on canvas painting of the Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakesh by Winston Churchill. The painting, the only one Churchill undertook during the Second World War, was completed on 25/26 January 1943, during a visit to the city by Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, following the Casablanca Conference. Churchill subsequently presented the picture to Roosevelt. It was later owned by Angelina Jolie. At its sale in 2021 the picture was described by Christie's as "Churchill's most important work" and achieved the highest ever auction price for a painting by Churchill.
The statue of Winston Churchill in Woodford, London, is a bronze sculpture of the British statesman, created by David McFall in 1958–9. The statue commemorates Churchill's role as the member for the parliamentary constituency of Woodford. Churchill was elected to the Epping seat in 1924 and held it until 1945 when the new constituency of Woodford was created. Churchill then held this seat until his retirement in 1964. The statue is a Grade II listed structure.
The Villa Taylor is an historic residence in the Guéliz district of Marrakesh, Morocco. The villa was built in the early-20th century by Moses Taylor, grandson of the merchant and banker Moses Taylor, and occupied after Taylor's death in 1921 by his widow, Edith Bishop Taylor. During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned by the American Government to house its Vice-Consul, Kenneth Pendar. In January 1943, Pendar hosted Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the villa, following the Casablanca Conference. While staying at the villa, Churchill painted Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, the only picture he undertook during the war. In 1947 Mrs Taylor sold the house to the mother of Comte Charles de Breteuil, who gave it to her son and his wife as a wedding present. The villa was subsequently bought by King Hassan II in 1985, who intended the house as a home for the Moroccan Crown Prince. This plan was not taken forward and the villa was abandoned and suffered neglect.
Douglas Granville Chandor was a British-born American painter of portraits, of which he created more than 200.