Winston Churchill Still-life Paintings

Believed by many to be the greatest Briton of all time, Winston Churchill was a revered statesman and a highly talented painter. This lovely work of art by the great man, Still Life, Silver at Chartwell, clearly displays his impressive skill as an artist. The artwork is one of a series of oil paintings executed by Churchill while staying at his country home. Churchill portrays a thoughtfully arranged collection of silver, including a salver and two neoclassical sugar pots, alongside a case of cigarettes. Through Churchill’s attentive brushwork the soft grays become gleaming silver on the muted tablecloth, providing a glimpse into the artist’s everyday private life at Chartwell. Sir William Nicholson, a fellow artist and dear friend of Churchill’s, often stayed at Chartwell during the 1930s and was deeply influential to Churchill’s artistic practice. The two would paint together around the estate, and one can easily see the similarities in Nicholson’s still life paintings with the present work, including an artwork presently in the Tate collection. As opposed to Churchill’s vibrant landscape paintings, the artist imbues the work with a sense of peaceful tranquility through a poignant use of light and shadow reflective of his own life at the time of its painting. It was composed during the 1930s, a time when Churchill was relatively free from political pressures and responsibilities, and the artwork represents a still moment of quiet contemplation as the artist honed his practice to remarkable effect. Painting was a dominating passion for Churchill in the last half of his life. There is little evidence that he had any artistic training prior to his 40s. In fact, his wife Clementine mentioned at one point that before he began painting, Churchill had hardly visited an art museum, much less created art. Churchill first began painting following a personal and political disaster, the Dardanelles campaign, in 1915. He is quoted as telling the painter Sir John Rothenstein: “If it weren’t for painting, I couldn’t live; I couldn’t bear the strain of things.” In 1948, he was bestowed the prestigious recognition of Honorary Academician Extraordinary by the Royal Academy of Arts. He painted roughly 500 works, approximately 350 of which are housed in Churchill’s garden studio at Chartwell. The present work also bears a significant provenance. Churchill gifted Still Life, Silver at Chartwell to his dear friend and colleague Sir Anthony Eden...