11/28/2023 0 Comments Winston churchill painting of pond![]() ![]() Mary Soames was his youngest child and moved with her parents into Downing Street when he became prime minister. THE Goldfish Pool at Chartwell painted by Churchill is up for auction at Sotheby’s in London. She recorded in her memoirs that because the water was boringly still, he ordered some village boys to row around the moat and cause some interesting ripples. His holiday landscapes are less coveted by collectors, but one shows the moat of a chateau outside Paris, the home of the glamorous Consuelo Vanderbilt, first wife of his cousin the Duke of Marlborough. This time there are three, including the goldfish pond, estimated at up to (pounds sterling)600,000, and a view from his terrace of the snow covered Weald, flanked by walls from another hobby of amateur brick laying, estimated at up to (pounds sterling)350,000. The last time Sotheby’s sold a Chartwell view in 2007, it set a new (pounds sterling) one million record for his work. Paintings expert Frances Christie says he was a much better painter than he is often given credit for: “He had very good tutors, and he really took advice and learned from them - which many artists never do.” The hottest bidding, however, is expected to be for the works of the passionate amateur Churchill, who befriended and was tutored by many of the artists including Sickert and Nicholson. The original is long dead, but at Churchill’s request a ginger cat with white socks, always called Jock, still roams Chartwell.ĬHURCHILL’S red Morocco dispatch box from his time as Secretary of State for the Colonies in London, on display at Sotheby’s.-Reuters Nicholson was fondly remembered by Mary making portraits of her dolls and pets including the ginger cat Jock several of his drawings are in the sale, estimated at up to (pounds sterling) 8,000. Some of the paintings are by famous artists including Walter Sickert, who had been a friend of Churchill’s mother-in-law, a moody view of a moonlit Wandsworth by Atkinson Grimshaw, a rare beach scene by L.S. “And it’s not as if we’ve been left empty-handed, there was just so much stuff - we’ve all got pieces of furniture, silver and at least one painting.” “There are so many of us children and grandchildren it was the only possible thing to do, but my mother left a very open will so we are very sure we’re not doing anything against her wishes,” she added. His granddaughter, the writer Emma Soames, said it was an odd feeling to walk into a recreation of her mother’s drawing room where everything including the sofas flanking the mock fireplace was for sale. It is the last time they will be seen together before they are scattered across the world to collectors of Churchilliana. His painting of the scene is one of the star items in an auction of personal possessions left by his last surviving child, Lady Mary Soames, who died last June aged 91.Ī gallery of his own paintings, regarded as the most important group ever sold, together with furniture, jewellery, photographs, books - many signed by the authors - and silverware including the dishes which his budgie Toby was trained to march up and down the dinner table and serve salt from, is on public display at Sotheby’s in Bond Street - Daughter of History, Mary Soames and the Legacy of Churchill - from now until the auction next Wednesday, Dec 17. The pond was dug by Winston Churchill at his beloved home, Chartwell in Kent, and the original fish were present from Harrods. THE descendants of the goldfish glinting in the shady water, in a painting going on view at Sotheby’s auctioneers, are still swimming in the same today.
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