Churchill
The Statesman as Artist
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- CHF 19.00
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- CHF 19.00
Beschreibung des Verlags
An entirely new perspective on Churchill and his paintings told in his own words and including material never before published, edited and introduced by David Cannadine.
Across almost 50 years, Winston Churchill produced more than 500 paintings. His subjects included his family homes at Blenheim and Chartwell, evocative coastal scenes on the French Riviera, and many sun-drenched depictions of Marrakesh in Morocco, as well as still life pictures and an extraordinarily revealing self-portrait, painted during a particularly troubled time in his life. In war and peace, Churchill came to enjoy painting as his primary means of relaxation from the strain of public affairs.
In his introduction to Churchill: The Statesman as Artist, David Cannadine provides the most important account yet of Churchill's life in art, which was not just a private hobby, but also, from 1945 onwards, an essential element of his public fame. The first part of this book brings together for the first time all of Churchill's writings and speeches on art, not only 'Painting as a Pastime', but his addresses to the Royal Academy, his reviews of two of the Academy's summer exhibitions, and an important speech he delivered about art and freedom in 1937.
The second part of the book provides previously uncollected critical accounts of his work by some of Churchill's contemporaries: Augustus John's hitherto unpublished introduction to the Royal Academy exhibition of Churchill's paintings in 1959, and essays and reviews by Churchill's acquaintances Sir John Rothenstein, Professor Thomas Bodkin and the art critic Eric Newton.
The book is lavishly illustrated with reproductions of many of Churchill's paintings, some of them appearing for the first time. Here is Churchill the artist more fully revealed than ever before.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This thin volume, which could have been a little thinner yet, consists of a long, well-written introduction by noted British historian Cannadine (Class in Britain), 12 of Churchill's essays on and reviews of art, and four short essays by art critics about Churchill's artistic productions. Churchill turned to painting in 1915, when he was dismissed as first lord of the admiralty because of the military disaster at Gallipoli. He ultimately produced more than 500 canvases mostly landscapes. With one shining exception, Churchill's essays and reviews are replete with distinctly un-Churchillian prose (e.g., "The function of such an institution as the Royal Academy is to hold a middle course between tradition and innovation"). The exception is his buoyant, eloquent 1948 essay "Painting as a Pastime," in which he writes of the joy painting has provided him, of how seeking new landscapes is a spur to travel ("Every country where the sun shines has a theme of its own"), and of how the canvas serves "as a screen between us and the envious eyes of Time or the surly advance of Decrepitude." The four short essays by critics are underwhelming by comparison. Still, lovers of art and followers of Churchill will find the book rewarding.
