Portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, Graham Sutherland, 1954
Source: http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/2015/10/24/familiealbum-van-een-natie-1548359
Listening to Simon Schama doesn't often inspire me to anything. Tonight he was presenting a programme on portraiture (The Face of Britain by Simon Schama, BBC2).
I was blown away by this portrait of Churchill by Graham Sutherland (1954). Churchill had sat for Sutherland and asked, "Cherub or bulldog?" meaning, "I have these two faces. Which do you choose?". Sutherland was determined to chose his own portrait while Churchill was more determined to smoke and be uncooperative as a sitter.
After its very public unveiling in Westminster Hall in November of 1954 where Churchill proclaimed it "a remarkable example of modern art", the painting was taken to the Churchill's country home at Chartwell and never displayed in public again. He hated it and it is said that Lady Churchill had hidden it and ordered it destroyed only a few months after her husband's death in April 1955.
At a glance, it is quite a familiar Churchill image. Looking at the face though, in the eyes you'll find something that was, I suspect, far too human and fragile for Churchill's liking.
Absolutely fantastic portraiture.
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