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

The Artist and thence by descent to his daughter Mary

Winston Churchill, 'Painting as a Pastime: Part I', The Strand Magazine, December 1921, illustrated;
David Coombs, Churchill: His Paintings, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1967, cat. no.278, illustrated p.186;  
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill's Life through his Paintings, Chaucer Press, London, 2003, cat. no.C278, illustrated p.37;
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill His Life and His Paintings, Ware House Publishing, 2011, cat. no.C278, illustrated p.37.

Original canvas. There are pinholes in the corners of the canvas which appear to be consistent with the artist's working method. The weave of the canvas has become worn towards the corners of the stretcher and there is a small hole in the canvas at the extreme upper left of the painting. There is a very old tear in the centre of canvas, to the right of the second pillar from the left. This appears to have been patched and retouched by the artist himself. On extremely close examination there are some fine lines of paint cracking scattered across the composition. The largest of these run vertically up from the restored hole. There are small scattered areas of loss to the paint surface across the work, including but not limited to, four losses in the lower left quadrant, a further four in the green pigment at the right of the composition and several very minor losses in upper part of the picture. There is a layer of dirt across the surface of the picture. The subject of the above the work is in fair condition. The appearance of the painting could be improved significantly with some minor restoration. Ultraviolet light reveals a faint area of florescence consistent with the old restoration of the tear at the centre of the composition. The painting is presented in a painted gold wooden frame. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

We are grateful to David Coombs for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

‘…let me say a word on painting as a spur to travel. There is really nothing like it… Every country where the sun shines and every district in it, has a theme of its own… the painter wanders and loiters contentedly from place to place, always on the look out for some brilliant butterfly of a picture which can be caught and set up and carried safely home’ (Winston Churchill, 1921, quoted in David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill’s His Life and His Paintings, Ware House Publishing, Lyme Regis, 2011, p. 86).

Despite his political life and significant literary commitments, Churchill was an inveterate traveller and would take his paints, brushes and easels wherever he went. The south of France and the Riviera in particular had an immense appeal to Churchill. The Churchills were strong Francophiles: Clementine spent many years of her childhood in Dieppe and both had several friends who lived across the country. Mary Soames recalls in A Daughter’s Tale how her father would recount Gallic history to her and that his heroine was Joan of Arc. From a young age Mary had a French governess, Madame Gabrielle L’Honoré, and as a result spoke French fluently, a skill she used to the full when she lived in Paris as wife to the British Ambassador.

In 1920, after selling Lullenden, his country retreat in Sussex, Churchill began work on his war memoirs and spent considerable time abroad painting. He appears to have made painting trips to the south of France with Lavery that summer and again in 1921 and although the location of the present work is unknown, it was probably during one of these trips that it was painted. In 1922, the year after Mary was born, Churchill and Clementine took their family to the Riviera where they rented the villa Rêve d'Or for six months. From this point, Churchill’s love affair with the South of France began. Drawn by good weather and inspired by the landscape, Churchill would return on numerous occasions often without Clementine who did not feel comfortable with the Riviera life. He would often stay at the actress Maxine Elliott's house or other villas along the coast including les Zoraides, la Dragonniere and Cap Martin. Later in life, Churchill even considered buying a villa in the Riviera but the costs involved eventually put him off.

In the present work, Churchill uses one of his favoured compositional techniques in which he places the architecture of the veranda in the foreground with a pagoda draped with wisteria jutting diagonally into the scene. This device subtly frames the landscape and creates a dynamic sense of perspective. He was particularly interested in the play of shadows here captured on the pathway: ‘It is wonderful – after one has tried and failed so often – to see how easily and surely the true artist is able to produce every effect of light and shade, of sunshine and shadow, of distance and nearness, simply by expressing justly the relations between the different planes and surfaces with which he is dealing’ (Churchill, 1921, quoted in Coombs and Churchill, op.cit., p.68).

Churchill must have thought a great deal of this painting as it was chosen to accompany his essay – Painting as a Pastime when it was originally published in the Strand Magazine in December 1921. The Strand Magazine was a highly thought after publication and could attract prestigious contributors.  His article stood alongside copy by P. G. Woodhouse and Arthur Conan Doyle. Indeed this article was later included in The Hundred Best English Essays selected by the Earl of Birkenhead.  Letters between Clementine and Churchill show how Churchill deliberated on whether to publish his thoughts on painting (see Mary Soames, Winston Churchill His Life as a Painter, Collins, London, 1990, p.46). Clementine was uncertain, but fortunately Churchill went ahead and the enthusiasm with which it is written provides a fascinating insight into his foremost passion.