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Lot Essay
Once thought to portray a coastal scene in the south of France, the present painting has now been identified as a depiction of Recco, in northern Italy, painted in 1945, and offers a tantalising view of this Ligurian harbour town on the Italian Riviera. Churchill painted there on 20 September 1945, after having spent several weeks on Lake Como.
The bombed railway viaduct and houses on the other side of the bay provided ready material for a picture, but Churchill and his easel soon attracted a crowd of angry locals. They took umbrage at the foreigner painting their ruined town, booing and shaking their fists to express their displeasure. While Churchill was not recognised, his obvious foreignness made his choice of subject unwelcome. Churchill withdrew from his vantage point and later admitted that he would have been ‘damn annoyed’ if Hitler started to paint the bomb damage in London (Colonel Wathen recollection quoted in M. Gilbert, Never Despair, 1941-45, Boston, 1986, p. 152).
Uniquely for a Churchill painting, the picture is double-sided. There is an oil sketch of an unidentified lady on the reverse. His thirty-year-old daughter, Sarah, accompanied him on his Italian sojourn in September of 1945, and he wrote time and again during his stay about what happiness she brought to him; ‘Sarah has been a joy. She is so thoughtful, tactful, amusing & gay. The stay here wd [sic] have been wretched without her’ (W. Churchill, 18 September 1945, Baroness Spencer-Churchill papers). It has been suggested that the depiction in Churchill’s oil sketch bears a resemblance to Sarah, with her high cheekbones and fashionably cropped auburn hair. She returned to England three days before the scene at Recco was painted, where she continued to pursue an acting career which culminated in Royal Wedding (1951), in which she starred opposite Fred Astaire. If this is indeed her, it is Churchill’s only painting of his daughter.
Recco, Italy was acquired directly from the Churchill family by Mary and Benjamin Rummerfield. The Rummerfields had a lifelong passion for collecting works by the artist, resulting in a collection of nine extraordinary compositions from many settings which held particular significance for Churchill. Recco, Italy has never previously been offered at auction, having remained in the family of Mary and Benjamin Rummerfield until now.
The bombed railway viaduct and houses on the other side of the bay provided ready material for a picture, but Churchill and his easel soon attracted a crowd of angry locals. They took umbrage at the foreigner painting their ruined town, booing and shaking their fists to express their displeasure. While Churchill was not recognised, his obvious foreignness made his choice of subject unwelcome. Churchill withdrew from his vantage point and later admitted that he would have been ‘damn annoyed’ if Hitler started to paint the bomb damage in London (Colonel Wathen recollection quoted in M. Gilbert, Never Despair, 1941-45, Boston, 1986, p. 152).
Uniquely for a Churchill painting, the picture is double-sided. There is an oil sketch of an unidentified lady on the reverse. His thirty-year-old daughter, Sarah, accompanied him on his Italian sojourn in September of 1945, and he wrote time and again during his stay about what happiness she brought to him; ‘Sarah has been a joy. She is so thoughtful, tactful, amusing & gay. The stay here wd [sic] have been wretched without her’ (W. Churchill, 18 September 1945, Baroness Spencer-Churchill papers). It has been suggested that the depiction in Churchill’s oil sketch bears a resemblance to Sarah, with her high cheekbones and fashionably cropped auburn hair. She returned to England three days before the scene at Recco was painted, where she continued to pursue an acting career which culminated in Royal Wedding (1951), in which she starred opposite Fred Astaire. If this is indeed her, it is Churchill’s only painting of his daughter.
Recco, Italy was acquired directly from the Churchill family by Mary and Benjamin Rummerfield. The Rummerfields had a lifelong passion for collecting works by the artist, resulting in a collection of nine extraordinary compositions from many settings which held particular significance for Churchill. Recco, Italy has never previously been offered at auction, having remained in the family of Mary and Benjamin Rummerfield until now.