Art Of The Day Weekly

#491 - from 16 November 2017 to 22 November 2017


David Hockney, Barry Humphries, 26th, 27th, 28th March 2015, acrylic on canvas (one of an 82-part work), 121.92 x 91.44 cm © David Hockney Photo Credit: Richard Schmidt.

AUCTIONS

Churchill, his last canvas

LONDON - In November 1915, Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, was deeply affected by the defeat of the amphibious operation in the Dardanelles. Until then his career had progressed brilliantly. But at age 40, he resigned. He even thought of abandoning politics. In order to give a new meaning to his life he enrolled in a subordinate position on the French front. But most important, he found his true hobby that would allow him to overcome all the challenges in store for him: painting. The old lion setting up his easel right over the cliffs of Madeira has become a cliché. But Churchill was just as happy catching the changing reflections on the pond of Chartwell, his beloved property in Kent. As a matter of fact, it was one a version of this familiar landscape that set a record in 2014, shortly after the death of his last daughter, Mary Soames, at £1.7 million (circa €1.9 million). The version up for sale now is estimated at a much lower price – barely £50,000 – but it should easily go past that amount. It is much more abstract, closer to Japanese lacquers, with colors contaminated by a burning landscape of Monsù Desiderio. Most important, it has an enticing story. Dated 1962, it is most probably the very last painting Churchill did, at age 88, before deciding to hang up his paintbrushes.
Modern and Post-War British Art at Sotheby’s, 21 November 2017.

Know more

Read the full Newsletter