JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Sir Winston Churchill is known worldwide as the inspirational statesman and British politician who led Great Britain to victory in the Second World War. He was a gifted orator and author, winning a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
But do you know Churchill the painter?
Turning to art at age 40
Churchill turned to the brush during a dark period in his life. His rapid rise through the ranks of government ended abruptly in 1915, when Churchill found himself bounced from Parliament and out of a job.
He was still a skilled writer and continued at that, but it was in painting that Churchill found rest.
Churchill’s great-grandson Duncan Sandys explained to Buckrail what Churchill found in creating some 550 works of art in his lifetime—many of them during a dark period when Churchill was hounded by what he called the ‘Black Dog.’
“He suffered from depression in the wilderness years out of office. It was the lowest period of his career,” Sandys said. “It is no coincidence in my mind that he painted more than half of his works in the 1930s. It was a time of recovery and reset.”
Sandys said Churchill—normally left-brain dominant—found painting an opportunity to stimulate, if not completely consume, his right-brain with a laser focus, allowing the other half to rest.
Art made the man
In addition to finding sanctuary in painting, Churchill also acknowledged later in life that painting helped him develop leadership qualities by improving his power of observation and sharpening his memory. He would often begin a painting en plein air and finish it later in his studio relying on his memory of the landscape to fill in the canvass.
“He had courage to try things,” Sandys said of his grandfather, revealing one of Churchill’s greatest attributes: He knew victory in anything was achieved through courage. With great risk, great reward. Churchill was the consummate ‘go big or go home’ guy of his time.
A quote oft attributed to him is: “You must put your head into the lion’s mouth if the performance is to be a success.”
What is more terrifying than staring at a blank canvass? What feat requires more courage than picking up brush and making that first stroke?
Sure, in some ways, Churchill knew he was a noob in a world he could never mine the depths of in “a million years,” he admitted. It may have been a big reason why he almost always painted landscapes and rarely living subjects.
“He once said, ‘If you don’t do a tree justice, it can’t talk back at you [to complain about it],’” Sandys said.
Eventually Churchill developed a style all his own after studying contemporaries like Charles Daubigny, John Singer Sargent, and Paul Cézanne. He was a natural. After all, Churchill had been painting with words for decades before he took to oils.
“He earned his money by his pen. His speeches were an extension of that,” Sandys said. “Look at those made during the war. People huddled around a radio box, hanging on every word. He was compelling and magnetic. His prose carries you from word to word, paragraph to paragraph, page to page. His writing was painting a literary picture.”
Of brass and brush
Churchill was masterful with pen and podium. Of that there is no argument. Painting? Well, he was getting there.
In 1921, Churchill sent five paintings under an assumed name (Charles Morin) to an exhibition at the Galerie Druet in Paris. Sandys explained that Morin was a recently deceased French painter who had a style similar to Churchill’s.
In 1947, he again hid behind a pseudonym (David Winter) when submitting two works (both accepted) to London’s Royal Academy of Arts for its summer exhibition.
Churchill was modest about his works throughout his life but Sandys said that wasn’t the only reason Churchill rarely signed his paintings.
“I think his biggest motivation was not so much that he didn’t think his works weren’t good enough to be exhibited, but because of who they were painted by,” Sandys said. “It wasn’t like his painting was a secret at that point. He had written several books about painting and his first exhibition was in 1919, four years after he started. He just did not want anyone to be influenced by his name.”
Where are they now?
Most of Churchill’s works remain in the national trust (Chartwell) at his family home in Kent. Some were gifted to family. One piece (“Tower of Katoubia Mosque”) was given to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, sold years later by his son Elliott, until it eventually wound up with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Nine of Winston Churchill’s paintings (painted between 1920s through the 1940s) will be on display at Heather James Fine Art in Jackson through September 16. The nine landscapes along with a coastal scene and a still life depict friends’ estates, gardens, as well as family vacation spots, including some of Churchill’s favorite travel destinations in France and Morocco.
A reception for the exhibit will be held at the gallery on September 11 from 5-7pm. Free with RSVP. Duncan Sandys will attend.
