Sir Winston Spencer Churchill O.M., HON. R.A.

(British, 1874-1965)

Riviera, a Sketch 35.4 x 50.8 cm. (13 7/8 x 20 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
The Studio, Chartwell
Sarah Millicent Hermione (Churchill) Touchet-Jesson, Baroness Audley
Wylma Wayne Fine Art Gallery, London, 1984, where acquired by the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Wylma Wayne Fine Art, Sir Winston Churchill: Exhibition of Paintings, 24 June-30 July 1982

Literature
David Coombs, Churchill: His Paintings, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1967, p.213, cat.no.347 (ill.b&w)
David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill: His Life and His Paintings, Running Press, Philadelphia, 2004, p.144, cat.no.284 (ill.b&w)

Riviera, a Sketch is a rare and revealing painting by Sir Winston Churchill. It is a work that allows us to think with the artist and gain insight into his ambitions and influences.

In his Catalogue Raisonné of Churchill's collected works, David Coombs describes the painting as, "A sketch of a scene probably on the Riviera". As his informal title indicates, the painting is centred on a view of the south-east coast of France, most likely created during one of Churchill's regular holidays on the Côte d'Azur in the 1930s.

For the 'sketch' Churchill fixes his gaze on the coastal landscape as it meets the sea. Unlike the expansive vistas often seen in landscape paintings, the composition is a tightly framed, compressed view of the coastline. The shore is enclosed by trees, with the foliage of the hillside enhancing the horizon set high up into the sky. Though the trees and rocks compress the structure of the scene, Churchill infuses the work with a striking sense of airiness and movement.

At close range the painting appears almost abstract; a dancing lattice of brushstrokes, some parallel, others unbound and more quickly applied. Glimpses of bare, unpainted canvas peek through the dense weave of brushstrokes. Stepping back, these varied marks coalesce into a shimmering effect that is aimed at capturing vibrations of light and colour. One can imagine the artist painting in the bright sunlight, speedily trying to capture a fleeting moment, creating the intense and luminous scene.

Riviera, a Sketch reveals much about Churchill's broader artistic influences and inspirations. The painting is an attempt to capture a transient moment in time and the sensation the scene creates in the onlooker. To this end, the work may be described as one of the more impressionistic paintings by the artist. The influence of Monet, and those who followed Impressionism, is particularly evident in Churchill's work of this period. This is made clear in his own account of those who inspired his paintings:

"Chance led me one autumn to a secluded nook on the Cote d'Azur, between Marseilles and Toulon,and there I fell in with one or two painters who revelled in the methods of the Modern French School. These were disciples of Cézanne. They view Nature as a mass of shimmering light in which forms and surfaces are comparatively unimportant, indeed hardly visible, but which gleans and glows with beautiful harmonies and contrasts of colour ... Now I must try to represent it by innumerable small separate lozenge-shaped patches of colour - often pure colour - so that it looked more like a tessellated pavement than a marine painting. It sounds curious. All the same, do not be in a hurry to reject the method. Go back a few yards and survey the results. Each of the little points of colour is now playing his part in the general effect."

Through the present work we glimpse a different understanding of Churchill the painter. Far from being the stalwart of traditional values in art, as he is so often depicted, Churchill was deeply interested and influenced by the 'masters' of Modern art. Riviera, a Sketch is a rare painting that offers a glimpse into the way the artist thinks, as well as how he sees.

Barry Phipps is an art historian and Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge and we are grateful to him for compiling this catalogue entry.