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

The Studio, Chartwell
Diana Churchill
Baron Duncan-Sandys, London, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1978

David Coombs, Churchill: His Paintings, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1967, cat. no.238, illustrated p.170 (as St Jean de Vie 1930s);
David Coombs and Minnie Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill's Life Through his Paintings, Chaucer Press, London, 2003, cat. no.C238, illustrated p.155;
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill His Life and His Paintings, Ware House Publishing, Lyme Regis, 2011, cat. no.C238, illustrated p.155.

Not viewed out of the frame. Original canvas. The canvas appears sound. There is an extremely small pinhole at the upper left corner, only visible upon very close inspection. There are one or two fine lines of reticulation and craquelure in places. There is a very tiny scuff in the lower right corner, thought to be as a result of frame abrasion. The work has recently benefited from a light clean, with fresh, vibrant colours throughout. Ultraviolet light reveals some scattered flecks of retouching in isolated areas in the trees left and right. There are one or two flecks of retouching elsewhere, and others areas of fluorescence, which appear to be inkeeping with the artist's materials. The work is presented in a painted wood and plaster frame, with a linen slip. Please telephone 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.

The seventeenth-century Chapel of Notre Dame de Vie is situated in a tranquil area of the Cote d’Azur in a lovely meadow flanked by rows of giant cypresses overlooking the village of Mougins, between Cannes and Grasse. It was built on the original site of a temple dedicated to Diana and the Hermitage (which is attached to the chapel) would have housed a hermit cared for by the conseil municipal. 

It was here that Picasso died in 1973 and where he spent the last fifteen years of his life in a villa (l’Antre du Minautore), screened by trees and bushes, probably behind where Churchill positioned himself to paint this work. Churchill and Picasso were no doubt drawn by the same interests to this picturesque and secluded spot and Churchill was to paint this vista at least three times from various angles during the 1930s. 

The French Riviera was a favoured painting location of  Churchill and despite his busy political life and literary commitments, he was an inveterate traveller and would take his paints, brushes and easels wherever he went. The Churchills were strong Francophiles; Clementine spent much of her childhood years in Dieppe and both had many friends who lived across France. In 1922 Churchill and Clementine took their family to the Riviera where they rented a villa for six months. It was from this time that Churchill’s love affair with the South of France began. He would return on numerous occasions, often without Clementine, and would stay at the actress Maxine Elliott’s house or other villas along the coast including Les Zoraides, La Dragonniere and Cap Martin. From these locations, Churchill would set off in search of inspiration. Consuelo Balsan recalled these expeditions in her memoirs, ‘The painting paraphernalia with its easel, parasol and stool had to be assembled; the brushes, freshly cleaned, to be found; the canvases chosen, the right hat sorted out, the cigar box replenished … he would depart with the genial wave and rubicund smile we have learned to associate with his robust optimism’ (Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, The Glitter and the Gold, 1953, quoted by Mary Soames, Winston Churchill, His Life as a Painter, Collins, London, 1990, p.88).

In this work, Churchill has captured the magnitude of the cypress trees which border the Chapel, standing as sentinels as they tower above the buildings. The rich tones of velvety dark hues applied in thick impasto create a dense canopy and add to their sense of majesty. The enormity of these trees is enhanced through Churchill’s treatment of the shadows which dominate the foreground, spreading in diagonal stripes across the rich meadow. The buildings are set back, caught by the blaze of sunshine streaking through the vegetation. The bell tower glints in the sunlight whilst the heavier areas of impasto show the rough brickwork of the façade. This picture depicts not just a beautiful seventeenth-century building in a magically secluded spot, but becomes for Churchill an exploration into the effect of light and shadow. He was always interested in the play of shadows, commenting: ‘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).