Early draft of ‘malignant’ Churchill portrait expected to fetch £800,000
An early draft of a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill by Graham Sutherland, in preparation for a work so hated by the former prime minister that he had it destroyed, could fetch up to £800,000 at auction.
The Houses of Parliament commissioned the British artist to paint a portrait of the war-time leader in 1954, funded by donations from MPs and peers.
The artwork, for which Sutherland received 1,000 guineas, was presented to Churchill at a public ceremony in Westminster Hall on his 80th birthday.
But Churchill found the depiction of him staring directly at the viewer deeply unflattering, deriding it as “filthy” and “malignant”.
Instead of being hung in Parliament, the final painting was taken to Chartwell, his home in Kent, and later destroyed on a bonfire.
An episode of the hit Netflix drama The Crown revolved around the creation of the painting and showed Sir Winston’s wife, Clementine, watching it go up in flames following its unveiling. But its destruction has been more recently credited to his private secretary, Grace Hamblin.
The preparatory draft, which shows Churchill in profile against a dark background, will be exhibited at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire before it goes under the hammer.
It is on view to the public until
Sunday, displayed in the room where Sir Winston was born 150 years ago.
The oil-on-canvas will then move to Sotheby’s in New York from 3-16 May before going on show in London between 25 May and 5 June.
It goes to auction on 6 June with a guide price of £500,000 to £800,000.
André Zlattinger, head of modern British and Irish art at Sotheby’s, which is arranging the sale, suggested that the preliminary study would have been more to Churchill’s taste than the end product.
He said: “The name Churchill evokes for each person a different snapshot of a multifaceted man.
“In this rare portrait, Churchill is caught in a moment of absent-minded thoughtfulness, and together with the back story of its creation, it gives the impression of a man truly concerned with his image.
“This version shows Churchill closer to how he wished to be perceived, his less austere… side.
“Having remained within the close circles of the artist and the sitter for generations, the sale of this work is an opportunity to acquire a piece of history.”
Over the course of his life, Churchill was also painted by artists including Sir William Orpen, John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and Sir Oswald Birley.