Winston Churchill in Art

“Sir Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965. Statesman” by James Guthrie was completed shortly after the First World War in which Churchill served as First Lord of the Admiralty, Minister of Munitions, and Secretary for War with responsibility for demobilization.

This portrait from 1920 was among a series of portraits of contemporary statesmen, painted in preparation for his Guthrie’s painting of “Statesmen of World War I.”

Churchill was a Member of Parliament for Dundee from 1908-22. He went on to serve as Prime Minister during the Second World War from 1940-45.

James Guthrie

Sir James Guthrie (1859 – 1930) was a Scottish painter, best known in his own lifetime for his portraiture, although today more generally regarded as a painter of Scottish Realism.

In 1919, Guthrie was commissioned by a South African financier to paint a group portrait of 17 politicians and statesmen of Britain and its allies who held office during the First World War.

The painting, “Statesmen of World War I,” was completed in 1930, shortly before Guthrie’s death. The painting was donated to the National Portrait Gallery, London. Guthrie’s 17 preparatory oil studies were also donated to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Sir Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965. Statesman

Title: Sir Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965. Statesman
Artist: James Guthrie
Date: 1920
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Height: 91.5 cm (36 in); Width: 71.1 cm (27.9 in)
Category: Popular Portrait Paintings
Museum: Scottish National Gallery

James Guthrie

Name: James Guthrie
Born: 1859, Greenock, Scotland
Died: 1930, Rhu, Scotland
Nationality: Scottish
Notable Works:
- Sir Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965. Statesman
- Statesmen of World War I
- David Lloyd George
- Sri Ganga Singh Bahadur
- Arthur James Balfour
- William Morris Hughes

“Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill” by Ambrose McEvoy

“Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill” by Ambrose McEvoy depicts the British statesman, army officer, and writer. Churchill was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 and represented several constituencies.

Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.

Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, his family’s estate. Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family.

He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns.

Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. Churchill served as President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary, championing prison reform and workers’ social security.

As First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, he oversaw the Gallipoli Campaign. After it proved a disaster, he was demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

He resigned in 1915 and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front for six months. In 1917, he returned to government and served successively as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, and Secretary of State for the Colonies.

After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure and depressing the UK economy.

Ambrose McEvoy

Arthur Ambrose McEvoy (1877 – 1927) was an English artist. His early works are landscapes and interiors with figures, in a style influenced by James McNeill Whistler.

Later he gained success as a portrait painter, mainly of women and often in watercolor.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

Title: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Artist: Ambrose McEvoy
Date: 1919 – 1920
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Height: 77.4 cm (30.4 in); Width: 63.8 cm (25.1 in)
Category: Popular Portrait Paintings
Museum: National Portrait Gallery, London

Ambrose McEvoy

Name: Arthur Ambrose McEvoy
Born: 1877 Crudwell, Wiltshire
Died: 1927, Pimlico, London,
Nationality: English
Notable Works:
- Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

“Winston Churchill” by Walter Sickert

“Winston Churchill” by Walter Sickert depicts one of the most famous faces of the twentieth century, holding his smoking cigar and with his look of aggressive determination.

This sketch was undertaken when Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer. At the time, Sickert was giving Churchill painting lessons at his home, Chartwell in Kent.

As well as writing, Churchill became an accomplished amateur artist after he resigned from the Admiralty in 1915.

Using the pseudonym “Charles Morin,” he continued this hobby throughout his life and completed hundreds of paintings, many of which are on show in Chartwell’s studio.

Sickert worked chiefly from photographs, but Churchill may have sat for him. Churchill disliked the portrait and gave it away.

Walter Sickert

Walter Richard Sickert (1860 – 1942) was a British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London.

He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the mid- and late 20th century.

His work includes portraits of well-known personalities and images derived from press photographs. He is considered a prominent figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism.

Winston Churchill

Title: Winston Churchill
Artist: Walter Sickert
Date: 1927
Medium: Oils on canvas
Dimensions: 18 in. x 12 in. (457 mm x 305 mm)
Category: Popular Portrait Paintings
Museum: National Portrait Gallery, London

Walter Sickert

Name: Walter Sickert
Born: 1860, Munich, Germany
Died: 1942, (aged 81), Bath, Somerset
Nationality: British
Notable Works:
- Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill, 1941 by Yousef Karsh

Virtual Tour of the National Portrait Gallery, London

“The Chandos Portrait of William Shakespeare” by John Taylor
Elizabeth I of England
King Edward VI of England
Catherine of Aragon
Self Portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
“Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts” by John Singer Sargent

The Legacy of Winston Churchill

A Virtual Tour of Portraits

Portraits
History Paintings
Mythological Paintings
National Portrait Gallery, London
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC,
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Popular Portrait Paintings

Mystery Of The Lost Churchill

Virtual Tour of the Scottish National Gallery

“Vision after the Sermon” by Paul Gauguin
Haystacks by Claude Monet
“Saint Bride” by John Duncan
“Drinkers in the Bower” by Pieter de Hooch
“Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw” by John Singer Sargent
“The Finding of Moses” by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
“Three Tahitians” by Paul Gauguin
“Diana and Callisto” by Titian
“Montagne Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cézanne
“Francesca da Rimini” by William Dyce
“Master of the Universe” by Eduardo Paolozzi
“The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch” by Henry Raeburn

The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill

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“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
– William Shakespeare

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Photo Credit: 1) James Guthrie / Public domain; Ambrose McEvoy / Public domain. ; Yousuf Karsh / Public domain; Archives New Zealand from New Zealand / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0); Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), Painter. Artist associated with 10 portraits, Sitter associated with 21 portraits. / Public domain

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