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

A gift from the Artist to his daughter Mary

David Coombs, Churchill: His Paintings, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1967, cat. no.206, illustrated p.158;
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill's Life through his Paintings, Chaucer Press, London, 2003, cat. no.C206, illustrated p.147;
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill His Life and His Paintings, Ware House Publishing, Lyme Regis, 2011, cat. no.C206, illustrated p.147.

Condition report prepared by Hamish Dewar, December 2014. Structural condition The canvas is unlined and is structurally secure and stable. Paint surface The paint surface would benefit from surface cleaning and revarnishing. No retouchings are identifiable under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in excellent and stable condition.
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We are grateful to David Coombs for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

Churchill was drawn to the medieval fortifications in Southern France, painting Carcassonne many times. As a military strategist of some genius, his interest in these battlements is understandable. The fortifications are immediately impressive, at their pinnacle soaring to over 200 meters and dominating the surrounding Languedoc countryside. The walls are constructed of a double fortification; the older part from late antiquity, the more recent part from the thirteenth century. In this work, Churchill focuses on the outer steps, using their curvature to create perspective with the marvellous view from the battlements stretching out beyond. The figures in this work are a rare sight; Churchill did not often include them in his work.  This painting was particularly significant to Mary Soames, as it was the first painting her father gave to her, and she wrote on a label attached to the reverse: ‘The first picture papa gave me when I was a child’.

Mary was particularly fond of her father’s paintings. The walls of her Holland Park home, West House, were lined with his works from which she took enormous pleasure in every day. She played a significant role in bringing Churchill’s artistic talent to a wider public audience, reprinting his treatise on Painting as a Pastime in 2002, assisting David Coombs in his publication Sir Winston Churchill, His Life and His Paintings and writing her own moving memoir of her father’s paintings Winston Churchill: His Life as a Painter published in 1990.