Rocky Seascape

Although during the war years Churchill only painted one work, A view of Marrakech, with the tower of the Katoubia mosque (the late Norman C. Hickman, U.S.A.), he returned to his favourite pastime, after the war, while on a trip to France. He declared in Painting as a Pastime, written in the early 1920s and published in book form in 1948, 'In all battles two things are usually required of the Commander-in-Chief: to make a good plan for his army and, secondly, to keep a strong reserve. Both these are also obligatory upon the painter. To make a plan, thorough reconnaissance of the country where the battle is to be fought is needed. Its fields, its mountains, its rivers, its bridges, its trees, its flowers, its atmosphere - all require and repay attentive observation from a special point of view. One is quite astonished to find how many things there are in the landscape, and in every object in it, one never noticed before'.

Lord Woolton was wartime Minister of Food (1940-1943) and served in Churchill's War Cabinet. He was later Chairman of the Conservative Party (1945-1955). He was a good friend of Churchill's and this picture was a gift from the artist.