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Lot Essay
Sir Winston Churchill began painting in 1915, aged 40, at a well-documented low point in his career. He found painting as an escape from his anxieties. As he describes in a 1921 article ‘Painting as a Pastime’ in the Strand Magazine, ‘the Muse of Painting came to my rescue – out of charity and out of chivalry’ (W. Churchill, op. cit., p. 539).
His enthusiasm for his ‘paint box’ was sustained throughout his life. He produced over 550 works and many were painted en plein air at Chartwell, his country home in Kent (now a part of the National Trust and still houses Churchill’s studio). Churchill was inspired by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism and admired the works of artists like Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne – made evident in the present painting’s loose and energetic brushwork and focus on light. The painting departs from most of his oeuvre as an interior scene. It shows the Long Gallery at Sutton Place of Guildford in Surrey, England. Built in 1525 by Sir Richard Weston (d. 1541), courtier of Henry VIII and purchased by John Paul Getty in 1959. Sutton Place served as Getty’s principal residence until his death in 1976.
His enthusiasm for his ‘paint box’ was sustained throughout his life. He produced over 550 works and many were painted en plein air at Chartwell, his country home in Kent (now a part of the National Trust and still houses Churchill’s studio). Churchill was inspired by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism and admired the works of artists like Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne – made evident in the present painting’s loose and energetic brushwork and focus on light. The painting departs from most of his oeuvre as an interior scene. It shows the Long Gallery at Sutton Place of Guildford in Surrey, England. Built in 1525 by Sir Richard Weston (d. 1541), courtier of Henry VIII and purchased by John Paul Getty in 1959. Sutton Place served as Getty’s principal residence until his death in 1976.