Winston Churchill was no Adonis but most of his portraitists did what they could to flatter him. However, when the British artist Graham Sutherland (1903–80) was commissioned to paint a full-length portrait of Churchill in 1954 for 1,000 guineas (about £27,000 today), paid by the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and to be presented in a lavish public ceremony, things did not go well.
Sutherland was chosen not by Churchill but by members of the Houses of Parliament in honour of his 80th birthday. Churchill asked to be portrayed in his Knight of the Garter robes but the commissioners specified he be portrayed as he most commonly dressed when visiting Parliament. Sutherland prepared for the portrait by making charcoal sketches of his subject’s face and hands on several occasions at the Churchill home at Chartwell, in August 1954. For inspiration, Sutherland referred to one of Churchill’s many memorable quotes: ‘I am a rock.’
Churchill reluctantly accepts Graham Sutherland’s portrait in Westminster Hall in November 1954
The result, when it was revealed on November 20 1954 to Clementine Churchill, was not a smashing success.
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