One MP called the portrait “a study in lumbago,” and Lord Hailsham said it was “disgusting, ill-mannered, terrible.” Churchill accepted the gift with a measured good humor, but privately he muttered, “It makes me look half-witted, which I ain’t.” After the unveiling, the painting was never seen again - shortly before Churchill’s death, his wife had it cut up and burned. Sutherland did a good many peparatory sketches too - I hope to post some of them shortly.
“The artist had obviously been unhappy about them and they had been painted over since it would have been impossible to ‘cut off’ his legs below the knees without radically altering the proportions and placing of the picture on the canvas.” “Its chief defect was that it looked unfinished in as much as his feet were concealed in a carpet that seemed to have sprouted a dun-coloured grass,” wrote Studio editor G.S. Winston Churchill diplomatically commented of Graham Sutherlands portrait of him that it was a great example of modern art.
The painting, by Graham Sutherland, was a decidedly modern take on the octogenarian statesman. Its chief defect was that it looked unfinished in as much as his. Sutherlands portrait of Churchill, to mark his 80th birthday caused a sensation at its unveiling in 1954, and was subsequently destroyed by the sitters. Shown the painting on completion, Churchill told Lord Moran, I think it is malignant. The painting, by Graham Sutherland, was a decidedly modern take on the octogenarian statesman. The painter initially felt welcome at Chequers, but he found Churchills curiosity as the portrait developed disturbing and prevented him from seeing it. Explore Pollyanna Cs board 'Graham Sutherland Portraits. Sir Winston ironically described it as a remarkable example of modern art. The ceremony took place before a crowded Westminster Hall, and no one present, one observer said, “will forget the idiosyncratic nonsound with which a thousand people stopped breathing when the canvas was revealed.” Lady Churchill described Graham Sutherland as a Wow, a family term expressing strong approval. The executors of Lady Churchills estate admitted that she had burnt Graham Sutherlands portrait of Sir Winston Churchill 18 months after the House of Commons had presented it to him in 1954. Winston Churchill faced an awkward moment in 1954, when Parliament unveiled a portrait on the occasion of his 80th birthday. At the birthday celebrations at Westminster Hall in November 1954, Churchill was presented with a portrait by Graham Sutherland, commissioned by past and present members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
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