Where can you find Winston Churchill's Art?
There are around 500 known Winston Churchill paintings in collections around the World. Churchill preferred to paint outside in the sunshine and these are generally my favorite Churchill artworks - however he also painted indoors: landscapes through the window, still lifes and portraits (and I love his portrait of Clemmie: "Lady Churchill at the Launching of H.M.S. Indomitable"). Many Churchill paintings can be found at his home, Chartwell in Kent and many of course are still owned by the family. HRH The Queen has a Churchill painting in her private art collection and the Tate Gallery, London, exhibits another one of my favorites; "The Loup River". Exhibitions appear from time to time in various galleries around the World - in particular Canada and the UK.
Winston Churchill Painting: Beginnings
Winston Churchill almost stumbled across painting when he was 40 years old. It was during a low point in his political career - the month of May 1915, post his resignation of his post as First Lord of the Admiralty following on from the Dardenelles disaster. Winston and Clementine Churchill had rented a small country house in Surrey where they would spend their weekends. Often Winston's brother Jack Churchill and his wife Goonie would come to stay. Goonie was a keen water-colorist and one day while she painted in the garden Winston wandered over to watch her. Encouraged by Goonie, Winston picked up her brush and tried a few strokes. He was hooked! Winston's art was more suited to the richer hues of oil paints than those of water-colour of course and Clemmie was despatched into town to buy the required materials. From that late spring morning, Winston Churchill and painting would seldom be separated.
Winston Churchill Painting: Expert Early Influences
Fortunately for Winston and his new hobby, his near neighbour in London was the talented portrait artist John Lavery. Both Lavery and his wife Hazel (also an artist) provided Winston with early oil painting lessons. Winston Churchill's art is characterised by bold sweeps of bright colours - while this style may fit with his personality, it was the Laverys who encouraged him to lose his inhibitions at the easel. While his painting went from strength to strength, things went from bad to worse militarily at Gallipoli. Churchill resigned form the government and went to the front line, to fight in the trenches with the Grenadiers and then the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Winston Churchill Painting: In the Trenches
During the winter and into the spring of 1916 Churchill used any slack period in the fighting to get his paints out. He painted a number of pictures of the mangled buildings and countryside of war torn "Plug Street" (Ploegsteert). The more he practised his painting the better he got. One young officer recalled seeing Winston move from morose to happy over a period of 5 or 6 days as finally he worked out the best way to paint a shell hole! (The secret it turned out was to put a dab of white paint within the hole!)
Winston Churchill Painting: Between the Wars
Immediately after the First World War and during his "Wilderness Years" Winston Churchill threw himself into painting. Wherever he went: Egypt, Canada, Scotland, the cote d'azur; Churchill took his painting equipment. In 1921 Churchill wrote an essay on his hobby - it is a charming read and was later published (in 1948) as Winston Churchill's Painting as a Passtime. In 1925 he won an amateur art competition (anonymously) - Churchill's painting style was maturing. During this period Churchill began visiting galleries and fell in love with the impressionists use of colour and light. Winston began copying impressionist paintings in his friends collections: in particular John Singer Sargent. In 1927 Churchill met Walter Sickert (who had incidentally been a friend of Clemmie's mother some years earlier). Sickert and Churchill were to paint together for a number of years. It was Sickert who helped Winston to paint from photos (and to project photos onto canvass to aid drawing - Churchill's art is all the more remarkable when one considers that Winston had no real talent or training in draughtsmanship.)
Winston Churchill Painting: Later Life
Unsurprisingly between 1940 and 1945 Winston Churchill had little time for painting or any hobby other than cigar smoking! Once the war was over and the British electorate had decided that they no longer wanted Churchill as PM, Winston painted with more enthusiasm than ever before. The next 10 years were to be Winston Churchill's painting hey-day. I for one, hope that Sir Winston is still enjoying his hobby in heaven. As he said "When I get to heaven I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting, and so get to the bottom of the subject."
Return to Winston Churchill Leadership Home page.
