Sailing boats in a harbour

The French born painter, Paul Maze, was equally proficient in painting in oils, pastels or watercolours, and took his favourite subjects from the English social scene, specialising in views of Henley Regatta, racing at Goodwood, and the trooping of the colour, as well as more depicting more international locations, such as Central Park, New York, Nice, La Rochelle, and Villefranche. Renowned for his great charm and wit, he and his wife Jessie were frequent and popular house guests. Friends and patrons included the painter Eduouard Vuillard and the Rockefellers, as well as Winston Churchill, whom Maze first met in 1915 in the trenches of the First World War while attached to British Fifth Army HQ. They remained close friends and Maze was a frequent visitor to Blenheim Palace in Churchill's later years.