For auction, Churchill’s final flourish
Painting given to his bodyguard in his last years celebrates statesman’s beloved home in Kent
HE IS remembered for his stirring feats of oratory which galvanised the nation during its darkest days at war.
But a little-known painting, due to go on sale this week, sheds light on the quieter side of Sir Winston Churchill.
A keen artist, Sir Winston created around 544 paintings after he took up the hobby in the Twenties, and it became an “integral part” of his life.
His final work, created shortly before he died in 1965, depicts his “most special place in the world”, the goldfish pond at his Chartwell home.
It was given to Sergeant Edmund Murray, his bodyguard, who served Sir Winston for the last 15 years of his life and helped the politician prepare his easel and brushes before he painted. It has remained with Sergeant Murray’s family, who treasured the painting.
Now the work The Goldfish Pool At Chartwell, which has never been exhibited before, is to be sold at auction and is expected to fetch up to £80,000.
Frances Christie, head of Sotheby’s modern and post-war British department, said: “It provided a very necessary antidote to public life.
“He writes beautifully about how, when you attack a composition, when you work out the balance of colours and of elements, it is much like planning an offensive.
“This was his last ever picture. But even more than that, it was the most special place in the world for Churchill, his home in Kent. It looks out on to the most incredible landscape.
“And for this great statesman, who takes a lot of credit for winning the Second World War, it is that perfect corner... that is forever England.
“It was where he always longed to return to and was most relaxed.”
She added: “It is the view that first captivated him when he bought the house in the early Twenties. And a very special place for him, right until the end of his life, was the goldfish pool.
“Towards the end of his life, he had this chair next to it. He would go and sit on it and tap his walking stick and all the goldfish would suddenly spring to life and that’s the subject of this painting.”
Ill health forced the former prime minister to paint less in the years before his death in 1965 and the creation of this work was the last occasion Sergeant Murray set up his easel and brushes for him. It has been cherished ever since by the bodyguard’s family.
“It shows how important painting was to Churchill – but also this place, Chartwell, that was integral to Churchill’s life.
“They’ve had it for a long time and they feel the time is right for someone else to enjoy it,” added Ms Christie.
The painting has a more abstract style than Churchill’s other work, she said, with “flashes of orange” used to mark out the goldfish.
An earlier, but larger, painting by Sir Winston of the same subject, which was owned by his daughter Mary, sold for £1.8 million in 2014. None of his works sold during his lifetime.
Ms Christie said: “This work was painted 30 years later. You can really see the progression in style.
“I think he would be really pleased that people were appreciative of his art. He loved painting and I think, I hope, he would have been amazed that there is quite so much interest in his painting.
“It’s extraordinary, for someone who was quite so busy, that he found so much time to paint. He was really quite proficient at it, and clearly had talent.”
David Coombs, an author and expert on Churchill’s paintings, wrote in The Daily Telegraph in 2014: “For Churchill, painting in oils was a physical and mental necessity: a distraction that demanded his whole attention… No wonder his professional artist friends uniformly admired his work.”
Last year two oil paintings, created in 1946 and worth a combined value of £800,000, resurfaced. The Goldfish Pool At Chartwell has a guide price of £50,000-£80,000 at auction in Sotheby’s Modern And Post-war British Art Sale in London on Nov 21.
‘It’s extraordinary for someone who was quite so busy, that he found so much time to paint. He was really proficient at it and clearly had talent’