Painting box
Category
Wooden objects
Date
Unknown
Materials
Metal, Textile, Wood
Measurements
863 x 717 mm
Collection
Chartwell, Kent
NT 1101002
Summary
HEIRLOOM. A painting box with two flaps to the cover, fitted with detachable rods which assemble to form an easel, the box with sling for carriage.
Full description
The travelling easel was displayed in the Studio from its initial opening in 1968 (two years after the house opened) until it was removed from display in 2014. This easel, a very large version of the ‘suitcase’ type attachment, used large Hook easel legs that can be adjusted to any height for sitting or standing. Many artists used them at the time (1920s) including John Singer Sargent who was one of Churchill’s artistic mentors. Sargent used a ‘Hook’ easel, described at the time as “The only satisfactory easel for large work out of doors; invented by J. C. Hook. R.A.” (Reeves & Son Ltd catalogue). Churchill’s modified design was thought to have been made for him by a cabinet maker, possibly the same one used by Sir John Lavery (his artist friend and earliest mentor). It is the easel most often used by Churchill when travelling and painting en plein air. There are countless images of Churchill using this easel while on holiday, typically wearing his Stetson and smoking one of his famous cigars, and completely absorbed in painting. Churchill also used it indoors, as can be seen in the above photograph of him painting in Miami Beach in February 1946 while en route to Fulton Missouri to make his ‘Iron Curtain’ speech. It was by having this easel close at hand, wherever he was in the world, that he could lose himself in painting, the hobby he called ‘a joyride in a paintbox’, and allow him to escape the pressures of life as a politician and later world-famous statesman
Provenance
Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from Randolph Churchill and allocated to the National Trust for Chartwell, 2022