Charting Churchill: The Studio at Chartwell

The Studio at Chartwell, Westerham 2014

After his party lost the general election, Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister and became Leader of the Opposition on July 26th 1945. The following year, he determined that he must sell his beloved country home Chartwell. Fortunately, a group of friends purchased the estate and gave it to the National Trust, with the proviso that the Churchills could live there the rest of their lives.

From the time he acquired Chartwell in 1922, Churchill loved to paint there. Eventually, he had a studio, shown above. Churchill enjoyed painting en plein air, but he also worked in his studio, often from photographs of a scene that he had admired during his travels. Churchill painted from 1915 until 1959/60. When he wrote about painting, he said: “We must not be too ambitious. We cannot aspire to masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joy ride in a paintbox. For this, Audacity is the only ticket.”

During his lifetime, Churchill painted over 500 pictures, approximately 300 of them during the 1930s, his Wilderness Years. During World War II, he created only one painting, in January 1943 in Marrakech, following his meeting with President Roosevelt in Casablanca. He later gave the painting to the President. Churchill’s first painting after the war was completed in France between the election on July 5th 1945 and the announcement of the results on July 26th. No longer Prime Minister, he had time to devote himself once again to his favourite pastime.

The image featured above is part of the limited edition collector’s portfolio created by Leslie Hossack to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. She presents locations that chart Churchill’s personal and political life, from his birth at Blenheim Palace in 1874 until his death in London in 1965. THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS are part of Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, Stalinist structures in Moscow, contested sites in Jerusalem, a Cold War bunker in Ottawa, NATO’s Headquarter Camp in Kosovo, and buildings linked to the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website. lesliehossack.com

Charting Churchill: Sundial at Chartwell, Westerham

Sundial at Chartwell, Westerham 2014

Winston Churchill spent a great deal of time at Chartwell, his country home, during the 1930s. By 1933, it had become his base for gathering intelligence about German rearmament and about Britain’s lack of preparation for war. Many senior individuals, both British and foreign, came to Chartwell to share information with Churchill, often at great risk to their careers and reputations.

Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party came to power in January 1933. In March, Churchill made his first speech in Parliament warning of the need to build up air defences in Britain. That same spring, Albert Einstein visited Chartwell to ask Churchill for assistance moving Jewish scientists from Germany to Britain. Einstein visited Chartwell again in 1939, and posed for a picture with Churchill in the garden, not far from the sundial shown above.

In the 1930’s, Clementine Churchill had gone without Winston on a lengthy trip aboard Lord Moyne’s yacht to several exotic islands. She brought back a dove from Bali, and when it died she buried it under the sundial in the garden. The inscription on the base of the sundial reads: HERE LIES THE BALI DOVE.

The image featured above is part of the limited edition collector’s portfolio created by Leslie Hossack. She presents locations that chart Sir Winston Churchill’s personal and political life, from his birth at Blenheim Palace in 1874 until his death in London in 1965. THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS are part of Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, Stalinist structures in Moscow, contested sites in Jerusalem, a Cold War bunker in Ottawa, NATO’s Headquarter Camp in Kosovo, and buildings linked to the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website. lesliehossack.com

Charting Churchill: Garden Wall at Chartwell, Westerham

Garden Wall at Chartwell, Westerham 2014

During the 1930s, Winston Churchill spent a great deal of time at his country home Chartwell where he wrote a number of articles and books. In 1929, he hired Maurice Ashley as his research assistant. For four years Ashley worked with Churchill, focusing on the Duke of Marlborough. The first volume of Marlborough: His Life and Times was published in 1933.

Years later, at the 1989 Churchill Society International Convention in London, Dr. Maurice Ashley gave an address called As I Knew Him: Churchill in the Wilderness. Ashley remarked: “A typical day when Churchill was working at Chartwell began with his taking breakfast in bed. There he read his newspapers and letters and would dictate answers and directions to one of his secretaries (two were usually on duty during the day). Then he went into the garden to engage in building and other activities. He came in around twelve o’clock and I was called in to help with work on his book on Marlborough… As I have already mentioned, when I was with him he would spend as much as five hours a day in the garden at Chartwell building wall after wall, occasionally painting, feeding the ducks, walking around the estate, supervising the work done there.”

After dinner, Churchill would go upstairs at about 10:00 pm to work again on his book, assisted by his secretary, Mrs. Violet Pearman, and Maurice Ashley. Ashley would later recall that when he left at about 3:00 am, Churchill would read in bed, getting about four hours steep. At the end of a day he would often say: “I laid about 200 bricks and have written 2,000 words.”

A tablet on one of the Chartwell garden walls reads: THE GREATER PART OF THIS WALL WAS BUILT BETWEEN THE YEARS 1925 AND 1932 BY WINSTON WITH HIS OWN HANDS.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website. lesliehossack.com

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL’S POLITICAL YEARS

CHARTING CHURCHILL, 1874 – 1965

Part 3, The Political Years, 1908 – 1929

On November 30th 2014, Sir Winston Churchill’s 140th birthday, Haute Vitrine started publishing images from the series THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS by Leslie Hossack.

Yesterday’s post marked the end of Part 3, The Political Years, 1908 – 1929. During this time, Sir Winston Churchill’s political career was firmly established; he contested eleven elections and won seven; he held nine cabinet offices, including Chancellor of the Exchequer, and delivered five budget speeches. Photographs featured in Part 3, The Political Years can be reviewed below.

To view the photographs from Part 1, The Early Years, 1874 – 1892 and Part 2, The Defining Years, 1892 – 1908, please visit the Haute Vitrine posts of November 30th through December 20th, 2014.

Leslie Hossack’s CHARTING CHURCHILL will continue into January 2015, the month that marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill.

33 Eccleston Square, London 2014

Old Admiralty Building, Whitehall, London 2014

Admiralty Arch, The Mall, London 2014

The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London 2014

State Dining Room, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock 2014

The House at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent 2014

The Lake at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent 2014

The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent 2014

11 Downing Street, London 2014

Horse Guards Parade, London 2014

The images featured above are part of the limited edition collector’s portfolio created by Leslie Hossack to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. She presents locations that chart Churchill’s personal and political life, from his birth at Blenheim Palace in 1874 until his death in London in 1965. To find out how these images are linked to Churchill, please see the previous posts here on Haute Vitrine.

THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS are part of Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, Stalinist structures in Moscow, contested sites in Jerusalem, a Cold War bunker in Ottawa, NATO’s Headquarter Camp in Kosovo, and buildings linked to the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website. lesliehossack.com

Charting Churchill: The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell

The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent 2014

Winston Churchill took up painting in 1915 and it became a life-long passion. Painting relaxed and restored him, and during a period of almost 50 years, he created over 500 pieces. When the family moved into Chartwell in 1924, it became one of Winston’s favourite places to paint. He won his first prize for “Winter Sunshine, Chartwell.” He then sent five paintings to a Paris exhibition in the 1920s. They were shown under the name Charles Morin, and four of them sold for £30 each.

Several of Winston’s paintings remained in the collection of his daughter, Mary. In her book A Daughter’s Tale, The Memoir of Winston Churchill’s Youngest Child (2011), Mary described herself as a Chartwell Child. She went on to play an active role in World War II, and then married Christopher Soames in 1947. Like her mother, Clementine, Mary became a mother of five. Like her father, Winston, Mary became a writer. One of the books he wrote was his father’s biography, Lord Randolph Churchill (1906); one of the books she wrote was her mother’s biography, Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage (1979).

Mary Soames also wrote Winston Churchill, His Life as a Painter (1990). When Lady Mary Soames, the Churchill’s last surviving child, died in 2014 at the age of 91, some of the paintings from her private collection were auctioned by Sotheby’s. The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell by Winston Churchill sold for almost £1.8m. A photograph of the pool as it appeared in 2014 can be seen above.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website. lesliehossack.com

Charting Churchill: The Lake at Chartwell

The Lake at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent 2014

By the beginning of the 1920s, Winston Churchill was firmly established in his career. He was a long-time member of the House of Commons and had held three cabinet posts: Secretary of State for War, January 9th 1919 to February 14th 1921; Secretary of State for Air, January 9th 1919 to April 1st 1921; and Secretary of State for the Colonies, February 14th 1921 to October 19th 1922.

However, 1921 was a very difficult year for the family. In January, Clementine’s grandmother, Blanche, the Countess of Airlie, died; in April, her brother, Bill Hozier, committed suicide; and in June, Winston’s mother, Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill, died. Then, most tragically, Marigold, the Churchills’ two-year-old daughter, died in August of 1921.

A year later, in September 1922, Clementine gave birth to Mary, the Churchills’ last child, and Winston purchased Chartwell, a country home located 25 miles from London. This would remain his beloved retreat for over 40 years, until his death in 1965. At Chartwell, Winston indulged a variety of interests, including exotic butterflies, ornamental fish and black swans. He was actively involved in planning the many water features on the property, such as the lake, shown above. He loved roses and enjoyed the different varieties planted at Chartwell, and he personally built most of the brick walls surrounding the gardens. Bricklaying became another of Winston’s passions.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website. lesliehossack.com

Charting Churchill: The House at Chartwell

The House at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent 2014

The ten years from 1919 to 1929 were a roller coaster ride for Winston Churchill, both politically and personally. After being reelected in Dundee in December 1918, he lost three elections in a row in various ridings, on November 16th 1922, December 6th 1923, and March 19th 1924. From the time of his first election to the House of Commons in 1900, these were his only defeats. On October 29th 1924, he was elected in Epping and went on to win eight consecutive elections before retiring on October 14th 1964.

Winston’s personal life was equally chaotic. From 1915, when the Churchills moved out of Admiralty House, until 1924 when they moved into 11 Downing Street, the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the family lived in approximately ten different London homes, several of which were loaned to them by friends or shared with other family members. Also during that time, Winston bought and sold his first country home, Lullenden.

Personal tragedy struck in August 1921, when the Churchills’ two-year-old daughter, Marigold, died of an infection. A year later in September 1922, Mary was born, Winston and Clementine’s last child. Much later, Mary described herself as “the child of consolation.” That same month that she was born, Churchill purchased a country home, Chartwell, shown above. For the rest of his long life, both Mary and Chartwell would bring him great comfort and joy. Mary lived until 2014, when she died at age 91, a daughter of history.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website. lesliehossack.com