Lady Soames revealed its fate publicly in her 1979 biography of her mother. A longtime Churchill bibliophile and collector, he was formerly associate editor of Finest Hour. He suggested posing in his Garter robes, but the Gift Committee instructions precluded that. On 20 November Lady Churchill previewed the portrait. 3 Roger Berthoud, Graham Sutherland: A Biography (London: Faber & Faber, 1982), 189. Graham Sutherland's Winston Churchill (1954) by Jonathan Jones Guardian, Saturday November 3, 200 . Sutherland who had already painted Churchill’s long-time friend and sometime goad, Lord Beaverbrook. After initially refusing to be presented with it at all, he accepted it disparagingly as “a remarkable example of modern art". What he feels, or shows at the time, I try to record.”7 And 1954 was a bad time to have Churchill as a sitter. Gunn’s portrait of King George VI suggests a work by him would have been more conventional, and flattering. Winston Churchill hated Sutherland's depiction of him. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Britain was now a junior player, and a former ally was a looming threat. Canada houses part of the historical moment between Winston Churchill and his portrait artist, as portrayed on Netflix's The Crown ... the artist, Graham Sutherland, created 19 studies of … by Graham Sutherland oil on canvas, 1954 13 5/8 in. With Claire Foy, Matt Smith, Victoria Hamilton, Vanessa Kirby. The sitter is Winston Churchill and the man deemed fit for the task of painting him is Graham Sutherland. Graham Sutherland : biography 24 August 1903 – 17 January 1980 Graham Vivian Sutherland OM (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was an English artist. It is impossible to be entirely sure which ones Churchill saw, but none were particularly egregious. Graham Sutherland was a British painter best known for his Surrealist abstractions of landscapes and figures. Archives, Beaverbrook Art Gallery. In October 1957 Clementine had written to Lord Beaverbrook: “[It] will never see the light of day.”11 By then the ashes were long cold. “[T]heir great desire is a central portrait of Winston. A painter, not a photographer, he worked within his brief and certainly within his style. References: Hammer M., Graham Sutherland: Landscapes, War Scenes, Portraits 1927-1950, Scala Publishers (2006) Thuillier R., Graham Sutherland: Life, Work and Ideas, Lutterworth Press (2015) Jones J., Graham Sutherland, Winston Churchill (1954), The Guardian [February 15, 2017] Cynics might think the recommendation, by one of Churchill’s greatest political enemies, something of a preemptive strike on WSC’s legacy. He […] Churchill had smashed the portrait in the cellar of the Churchill country home at Chartwell, where it was kept behind a boiler, then gave it to him to burn. At the birthday celebrations at Westminster Hall in November 1954, Churchill was presented with a portrait by Graham Sutherland, commissioned by past and present members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Sutherland captured him at a time he hated, when he knew almost all was behind him. GRAHAM SUTHERLAND’S PORTRAIT OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL (1954) by Celia Lee The following article is a discussion of the known facts, that include an exclusive interview with Lady Williams the former Miss Jane Portal, who was at that time (1954) Secretary to Sir Winston Churchill. Sutherland saw a man behind the legend, reached deep, and in the end, gave us the man. He had rallied his country at a time of mortal peril. They present him with the gift of a portrait, paid for by parliamentary subscription. 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