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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965)

Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley (Auckland 1880 – 1952)

Category

Art / Oil paintings

Date

1951

Materials

Oil on canvas

Measurements

762 x 622 mm (30 x 24 1/2 in)

Place of origin

England

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Collection

Chartwell, Kent

NT 1102414

Summary

Oil painting on canvas, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) by Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley, RA (Auckland 1880 – 1952), 1951. A half-length portrait, turned slightly to the left, gazing to the left, in a siren suit.

Full description

NT 1102414 - Oswald Birley portrait of Winston Churchill, Chartwell Current ‘Collections’ text: Summary Oil painting on canvas, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) by Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley, RA (Auckland 1880 – 1952), 1951. A half-length portrait, turned slightly to the left, gazing to the left, in a siren suit. Provenance Bequeathed by Rhoda, Lady Birley (1900 - 1980) of Charleston Manor Makers and roles Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley, RA (Auckland 1880 – 1952), artist Additional information: In April 1951, Trinity House Corporation commissioned Birley to paint Churchill as an Elder Brother of Trinity (Fig. 1). Sittings were in early August 1951 and this portrait was completed by the end of the month. During the first two days of sittings at Chartwell, Birley produced a quick head and shoulders oil sketch of Churchill wearing one of his dark blue siren suits, which he noticed had especially impressed Clementine. Birley decided to work this ‘hasty’ sketch up into a more realised painting to give to Clementine as a Christmas present. Work on the portrait was delayed when Birley fell ill with bronchitis but he was able to complete the portrait by the end of December 1951. For many years, this painting hung in Lady Churchill’s downstairs study / sitting room at Chartwell and it was one of her most favoured portraits. It was also a favourite of Lady Soames’s - her daughter Emma recently recalled: 'In a very prominent spot behind my mother's armchair hung her favourite portrait of her father, painted by Oswald Birley when Churchill was in his seventies” (Fig. 2). This painting, owned by Lady Soames, was sold on 17th December 2014 as part of Sotheby’s Daughter Of History: Mary Soames And The Legacy Of Churchill Auction, to a private collector for a sum of £ 1,426,500. Provenance The portrait hanging now in Lady Churchill’s Sitting Room at Chartwell, painted in 1951, was obtained by the National Trust in 1983 from the estate of Lady Birley (Fig. 3). Oswald Birley had clearly ‘worked up’ two copies of the original sketch of Churchill wearing one of his dark blue siren suits, one of which the Birleys retained, later to be bequeathed to Chartwell.

Provenance

Bequeathed by Rhoda, Lady Birley (1900 - 1980) of Charleston Manor

Makers and roles

Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley (Auckland 1880 – 1952), artist

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