Ten never-before-seen paintings by the former British Prime Minister, who was an avid artist, are now on display in California (and online).
The ten paintings, which have never been publicly displayed, come from the largest private collection of Churchill’s works outside of the United Kingdom. They include landscapes, seascapes, a still life and an interior portrait - all bursting with vibrant colour.
Churchill took up painting in 1915, when he was 40, and it became a passion for the rest of the life of this self-taught artist. In his 1948 book Painting as a Pastime, Churchill wrote: "To have reached the age of 40 without ever handling a brush or fiddling with a pencil, to have regarded with mature eye the painting of pictures of any kind as a mystery, to have stood agape before the chalk of the pavement artist, and then suddenly to find oneself plunged in the middle of a new and intense form of interest and action with paints and palettes and canvases, and not to be discouraged by results, is an astonishing and enriching experience. I hope it may be shared by others."
The politician rarely sold his works. Instead, he kept them in his home or gave them to friends, colleagues and even some famous figures. One that he gave Franklin D Roosevelt -titled Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque - after the 1943 Casablanca Conference was sold by his son in 1950, and eventually found its way to Angelina Jolie, who sold it in 2021 for £8.25 million ($10.75m) at a Christie's auction.
Churchill created over 500 artworks in his lifetime. According to the gallery, he painted about half of them in the 1930s - just before his first term as prime minister began in 1940.
Winston Churchill: Making Art, Making History is on view at Heather James Fine Art in Palm Desert, California, through December 31. Click the link to get your own private viewing online.