Their finest (half) hour

ON loan from an American collector, a rarely seen portrait of Sir Winston Churchill goes on display at the Imperial War Museum’s Churchill War Rooms—his secret underground HQ— today. The Freedom Portrait—created in honour of Churchill’s acceptance of The Freedom of the City of London in November 1944—is the only one the Prime Minister sat for during the war; that said, he couldn’t be persuaded to sit still for longer than half an hour. It was painted by Frank Owen Salisbury, an English artist whose sitters included five US presidents, five Prime Ministers and various members of the Royal Family. ‘Wartime London: Art of the Blitz’ runs until April 24 (www.iwm.org.uk).