![]() Churchill had wanted to direct the composition towards a fictionalised scene but Sutherland had insisted upon a realistic portrayal, one described by Simon Schama as "No bulldog, no baby face. Sutherland and Churchill had different hopes for the painting. He was drawn to depicting subjects as they truly were without embellishment some sitters considered his disinclination to flattery as a form of cruelty or disparagement to his subjects. Sutherland had gained a reputation as a modernist painter through some recent successful portraits, such as Somerset Maugham in 1949. Clementine Churchill learned of the deed the next morning and approved.īy the time the portrait had been commissioned, Churchill was an elder statesman nearing the end of his second period as Prime Minister. According to this, the painting was taken by her and her brother to a secluded house and burned. For a long time it was assumed that it was destroyed by Lady Spencer-Churchill however, in the course of research for a biography of Churchill, audio recordings were sighted that attribute the destruction to Grace Hamblin, Churchill's private secretary. After its public presentation, the painting was taken to his country home at Chartwell but not displayed. The painting was presented to Churchill by both Houses of Parliament at a public ceremony in Westminster Hall on his 80th birthday on 30 November 1954.įinding the depiction deeply unflattering, Churchill disliked the portrait intensely. Sutherland received 1,000 guineas in compensation for the painting, a sum funded by donations from members of the House of Commons and House of Lords. In 1954, the English artist Graham Sutherland was commissioned to paint a full-length portrait of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. It was disliked by Churchill and eventually destroyed shortly after. The Portrait of Winston Churchill was a painting by English artist Graham Sutherland that depicted the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, created in 1954. As well as his many political achievements, he left a legacy of an impressive number of publications and in 1953 won the Nobel Prize for Literature.Ĭhurchill died on 24 January 1965 and was given a state funeral.1954 painting by Graham Sutherland Portrait of Winston Churchill (1954) by Graham Sutherland He resigned in 1955, but remained an MP until shortly before his death. He worked tirelessly throughout the war, building strong relations with US President Roosevelt while maintaining a sometimes difficult alliance with the Soviet Union.Ĭhurchill lost power in the 1945 post-war election but remained leader of the opposition, voicing apprehensions about the Cold War (he popularised the term 'Iron Curtain') and encouraging European and trans-Atlantic unity. His refusal to surrender to Nazi Germany inspired the country. In May 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned as prime minister and Churchill took his place. When war broke out in 1939, Churchill became first lord of the Admiralty. ![]() ![]() The next decade were his 'wilderness years', in which his opposition to Indian self-rule and his support for Edward VIII during the 'Abdication Crisis' made him unpopular, while his warnings about the rise of Nazi Germany and the need for British rearmament were ignored. From 1919 to 1921 he was secretary of state for war and air, and from 1924-1929 was chancellor of the exchequer. In 1917, he was back in government as minister of munitions. He joined the army, serving for a time on the Western Front. He held this post in the first months of World War One but after the disastrous Dardanelles expedition, for which he was blamed, he resigned. The following year he became first lord of the Admiralty. In 1908 he entered the Cabinet as president of the Board of Trade, becoming home secretary in 1910. ![]() When the Liberals won the 1905 election, Churchill was appointed undersecretary at the Colonial Office. But he became disaffected with his party and in 1904 joined the Liberal Party. In 1900, Churchill became Conservative member of parliament for Oldham. While working as a journalist during the Boer War he was captured and made a prisoner-of-war before escaping. He saw action on the North West Frontier of India and in the Sudan. Churchill attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before embarking on an army career. His father was the prominent Tory politician, Lord Randolph Churchill. Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on 30 November 1874 at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
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