The motivations that drive professional artists, to create artwork original enough to attract patrons and posterity, were the least of Churchill’s concerns. Was Churchill a “good artist”? Cannadine dodges the question by calling him a “successful amateur,” and rightfully so. Alongside a biographical essay, Cannadine has collected all of Churchill’s known writings on art and has paired them with a selection of writings by Churchill’s art world contemporaries, providing a window into how his art was perceived in his own time. Published this past fall, Churchill: The Statesman as Artist traces Churchill’s artistic development and influences. The only other artist drawing larger crowds at the time was Leonardo da Vinci.Ī new book by British biographer David Cannadine sets out to highlight Churchill’s artistic legacy, or least pull it from the heap of his political accomplishments. In London, gallery goers lined up around the block of the Royal Academy to see Churchill’s work. At the Art Institute of Chicago, the director’s decision to decline the traveling exhibition caused such a furor he was forced to resign. Eisenhower convinced a gallery in the Midwest to exhibit his work (and convinced Churchill to allow them), it sparked Churchill’s creative apotheosis across the world’s English-speaking countries. The signs are there: a prodigious output of over 544 canvases a longstanding relationship with Britain’s Royal Academy, eclipsed only by his relationship with the House of Commons and a traveling exhibition of his work that garnered a public response unlike any in the 20 th century. Yet painting was one of the most enduring and enriching activities he embraced in his lifetime. In the latest biography by Andrew Roberts, one of Churchill’s preeminent historians, just three pages out of 1,500 are devoted to the statesman’s artistic legacy. Yet for historians more familiar with battlefield strategy than compositional form, Churchill’s artistic legacy is often swept into the dustbin. Lord Asquith had already kicked him out of his government following the devastating defeat at Gallipoli, and Churchill had spent several years rehabilitating his image, including commanding men in the trenches of World War I Belgium.Ĭhurchill would make both Faustian bargains in his life, as a politician and artist. By the time he offered these remarks in 1927, he had run for office as a Conservative, as a Liberal, as a short-lived “Constitutionalist,” and then again as a Conservative. Whereas an artist’s Faustian bargain was to capture a moment for all to enjoy, the politician’s deal with the devil was for enduring power and influence. In a single turn of phrase, Churchill managed to beatify half the room and damn the other. “Without the slightest prejudice to their future destination,” Churchill continued, artists have “the power to command the moment to remain, not only for their own advantage and reputation, but for the pleasure of everyone else.”
“We have been told that Faust sold his soul for the right to command the moment to remain,” Winston Churchill told the politicians and artists gathered at the Royal Academy’s summer banquet.
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