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Lot Essay
Very nearly half a century after Sir Winston Churchill's death few people may know or remember that he had always to support himself and his family, in the lavish style they all expected, by means of his writing. Many articles, many books attest to this, as did his lengthy visit to Marrakech in Morocco from December 1947, an important working vacation that this painting commemorates.
By 1946 aged 71, and although his health remained a concern, Churchill had regained the self-confidence so heavily bruised the previous year by his election defeat. He needed to make money, lots of it, principally to ensure proper future provision for his wife Clementine and for their children and grandchildren.
He decided to write his memoirs based on the Second World War, still strong in everyone's memories and to which he would bring a unique perspective. Churchill knew his worth and as a very experienced and successful writer and journalist knew that a large scale and authoritative history would not only sell well, very well in fact, but could be designed for serialisation in the press: in the event by Life and the New York Times in the United States and in Britain by the Daily Telegraph, owned by Churchill's great friend Lord Camrose.
With this mighty task in prospect (it was eventually to form six volumes) Churchill had, in addition to his secretaries, gathered round him a small team of researchers headed by his pre-war literary assistant Bill Deakin, notable historian, brave soldier and later Master of St Antony's College in Oxford. Despite many political and parliamentary distractions and a series of overseas visits, Churchill toiled over his war memoirs throughout 1946 and 1947 by the end of which Churchill decided to take a working holiday with Deakin for six or seven weeks in Marrakech – which he loved, as his many paintings set there confirm, and which he had first visited in the 1936. This time, Churchill planned to complete the final revisions of the first volume of his memoirs due for publication early in 1948.
Although he always worked with an almost compulsive intensity, Churchill understood his need from time to time, if not for a change of gear then certainly for a change of focus: a need his painting amply fulfilled.
Happily, the circumstances of the making of the present painting are recorded in a letter Churchill wrote to his wife Clementine, dated 24 December 1947. “The weather continues to be cloudless and lovely ... Yesterday we went for a picnic at Ourika, where we had three picnics together in 1943-44.” [At the time of the Casablanca Conference with President Roosevelt.] Earlier in the same letter Churchill told Clementine that he had several “pictures on the stocks. They are really much better, easier, looser, and more accomplished than those I painted twelve years ago. I think you will be interested in them. They look much more like the real thing...” (Cf. The final volume Never Despair of Martin Gilbert's biography of Winston Churchill, p. 384).
Clementine was her husband's severest and most consistent critic and the fact that she originally owned this picture, says much for its intrinsic “looser” and other attractive qualities. Apart from anything else, the painting shows no signs of the later workings in his studio at Chartwell that Churchill so often thought necessary and which, in this instance anyhow, Clementine was obviously able to talk him out of.
We are very grateful to David Coombs for preparing this catalogue entry.
By 1946 aged 71, and although his health remained a concern, Churchill had regained the self-confidence so heavily bruised the previous year by his election defeat. He needed to make money, lots of it, principally to ensure proper future provision for his wife Clementine and for their children and grandchildren.
He decided to write his memoirs based on the Second World War, still strong in everyone's memories and to which he would bring a unique perspective. Churchill knew his worth and as a very experienced and successful writer and journalist knew that a large scale and authoritative history would not only sell well, very well in fact, but could be designed for serialisation in the press: in the event by Life and the New York Times in the United States and in Britain by the Daily Telegraph, owned by Churchill's great friend Lord Camrose.
With this mighty task in prospect (it was eventually to form six volumes) Churchill had, in addition to his secretaries, gathered round him a small team of researchers headed by his pre-war literary assistant Bill Deakin, notable historian, brave soldier and later Master of St Antony's College in Oxford. Despite many political and parliamentary distractions and a series of overseas visits, Churchill toiled over his war memoirs throughout 1946 and 1947 by the end of which Churchill decided to take a working holiday with Deakin for six or seven weeks in Marrakech – which he loved, as his many paintings set there confirm, and which he had first visited in the 1936. This time, Churchill planned to complete the final revisions of the first volume of his memoirs due for publication early in 1948.
Although he always worked with an almost compulsive intensity, Churchill understood his need from time to time, if not for a change of gear then certainly for a change of focus: a need his painting amply fulfilled.
Happily, the circumstances of the making of the present painting are recorded in a letter Churchill wrote to his wife Clementine, dated 24 December 1947. “The weather continues to be cloudless and lovely ... Yesterday we went for a picnic at Ourika, where we had three picnics together in 1943-44.” [At the time of the Casablanca Conference with President Roosevelt.] Earlier in the same letter Churchill told Clementine that he had several “pictures on the stocks. They are really much better, easier, looser, and more accomplished than those I painted twelve years ago. I think you will be interested in them. They look much more like the real thing...” (Cf. The final volume Never Despair of Martin Gilbert's biography of Winston Churchill, p. 384).
Clementine was her husband's severest and most consistent critic and the fact that she originally owned this picture, says much for its intrinsic “looser” and other attractive qualities. Apart from anything else, the painting shows no signs of the later workings in his studio at Chartwell that Churchill so often thought necessary and which, in this instance anyhow, Clementine was obviously able to talk him out of.
We are very grateful to David Coombs for preparing this catalogue entry.