Sir Winston Churchill, K.G., O.M., F.R.S., HON. R.A.

A gift from the Artist to his daughter Mary

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, 1951, cat. no.557;
Kansas City, The Nelson Gallery, Winston Churchill the Painter, 1958, cat. no. 11, with tour to Detroit, New York, Washington, Providence, Dallas, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Fredericton, Vancouver, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, and Perth; 
London, Royal Academy of Arts Diploma Gallery, Winston Churchill Honorary Academician Extraordinary, 1959, unnumbered, illustrated;
London, M. Knoedler & Co., "Painting as a Pastime" by Sir Winston Churchill K.G., O.M., C.H., May - June 1977,  number untraced;
London, Wylma Wayne Fine Art, Sir Winston Churchill: Exhibition of Paintings, 24th June - 30th July 1982, cat. no.25, illustrated;
New York, National Academy of Design, Painting as a Pastime: The Paintings of Winston S. Churchill, 12th May - 3rd July 1983, with tour to Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution Castle Building, 21st September - 2nd November 1983, illustrated;
Tokyo, Sir Winston Churchill Exhibition in Japan, with tour to Kagoshima, Aichi and Kanagawa, April - June 1998;
London, Sotheby's, Painting as a Pastime: Winston Churchill - His Life as a Painter, 5th - 17th January 1998, cat. no.48, illustrated p.119.

Bruce Ingram (ed.), 'An Eightieth Year Tribute to Winston Churchill', The Illustrated London News, 1954;
David Coombs, Churchill: His Paintings, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1967, cat. no.183, illustrated p.149;  
Mary Soames, Winston Churchill: His Life as a Painter, William Collins Sons & Co., London, 1990, cat. no. 37, illustrated p.109;
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill's Life through his Paintings, Chaucer Press, London, 2003, cat. no.C183, illustrated p.133;
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill His Life and His Paintings, Ware House Publishing, Lyme Regis, 2011, cat. no.C183, illustrated p.133.

Original canvas. There are very fine diagonal lines of craquelure in areas across the composition, predominately in the lower right and upper left quadrant, with further traces visible elsewhere. There are some minor areas of frame abrasion at the extreme edges of the canvas. With the exception of this, the work appears to be in good condition. Ultraviolet light reveals no obvious signs of florescence or retouching. The picture is presented in a wooden painted frame. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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We are grateful to David Coombs for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

Although best known for his landscape paintings, Churchill was an accomplished master of the still life genre, learning from his close friend William Nicholson (see lot --) and a John Singer Sargent painting lent from the collection of Philip Sassoon in the 1920s. Whilst in fine weather he headed outside into the captivating gardens of his beloved Chartwell, the English weather often kept him indoors, where throughout the 1930s he became accomplished in his delicate rendering of flowers, setting them alongside props drawn from around the household by his youngest daughter Mary. Looking towards the still life compositions of his close friend and mentor William Nicholson, Churchill placed the plants in vases or cups, often drawing on the impressive collection of silver on offer at Chartwell (see lot 256 Silver Life). In the present work Churchill placed the single flower head inside a Charles II silver-gilt vase, one of a pair bequeathed by the Edwardian financier Sir Ernest Cassel to Churchill in 1921.

Approaching the flowers with the same close attention to detail as he had the landscapes of the previous decade, the soft, delicate petals capture the light in much the same way as the waves of the gently rolling Mediterranean waters. Not constrained by a hectic London schedule of appointments and meetings, the 1930s allowed Churchill time to turn his attention towards his painting, and at Chartwell he drew inspiration from the mallows, nasturtiums, tulips, daffodils and roses that filled the flowerbeds. These charming compositions were often given as gifts to family and close friends, including a small Study of Roses gifted by Churchill to the actress Vivien Leigh (C181, Private Collection).

Of all the flowers that filled the garden, Churchill held a special affection for the magnolia tree, planted by his wife beneath his bedroom window, and representing a symbol of perseverance, beauty and perfection. Named after the 17^th Century French botanist Pierre Magnolia, the plant comes in varying shades of pinky whites, and has captured the imagination of artists including Stanley Spencer (whose 1938 work, Magnolias sold in these rooms, 11^th November 2009), and Churchill was no exception to this, drawn to the luscious lemon-scented plants of the Magnolia grandiflora variety that he awoke to every morning. Churchill painted a number of smaller compositions featuring the flower, including Magnolia and Leaves in a Silver Mug (C154, circa 1930, The National Trust, Chartwell), yet the present work is undoubtedly one of the most impressive, featuring on the front cover of the exhibition published for his 1959 retrospective at the Royal Academy, London.