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Lot Essay
The present work is sold with a copy of a letter from the artist's friend, the painter Paul Maze, dated 24 March 1971: 'I hereby certify that the/picture of a 'beach with/bathers on a background of/a Casino etc. was painted/by Sir Winston Churchill./It is an early one and I have the recollection of/having handled it in his/studio when looking or/inspecting, at his request,/his pictures whenever I/visited him - at Chartwell./Paul Maze'.
Paul Maze and Churchill had first met in 1916, during the First World War, but it was not until the 1930s that the men became close friends and saw each other frequently.
Mary Soames (Sir Winston Churchill - His Life as a Painter, London, 1990, p.88) records Churchill's love affair with the French Riviera, which had first begun in the winter of 1922: 'During the thirties, despite enormous literary output and his total involvement in politics, Winston generally enjoyed uninterrupted holidays, and it was during these years that he regularly sought the sunshine scenes of the South of France which so beguiled him. During these years his most frequent port of call was the Chteau de l'Horizon at Golfe-Juan, near Cannes, the home of Miss Maxine Elliot'.
Paul Maze and Churchill had first met in 1916, during the First World War, but it was not until the 1930s that the men became close friends and saw each other frequently.
Mary Soames (Sir Winston Churchill - His Life as a Painter, London, 1990, p.88) records Churchill's love affair with the French Riviera, which had first begun in the winter of 1922: 'During the thirties, despite enormous literary output and his total involvement in politics, Winston generally enjoyed uninterrupted holidays, and it was during these years that he regularly sought the sunshine scenes of the South of France which so beguiled him. During these years his most frequent port of call was the Chteau de l'Horizon at Golfe-Juan, near Cannes, the home of Miss Maxine Elliot'.