Last night I watched a programme on Churchill's painting. Surprisingly he had painted about 500 paintings, often at Chartwell but abroad as well. In this time of lockdown, art sweeps the board on BBC4, it is also at the end of this week the end date of World War 2 - 8th May 1945. He painted the fishpond at Chartwell many times, and one of the paintings was sold for the pricey sum of two million pounds. I am not going to give a judgement about his art work but its exuberance cannot be faulted.
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| The goldfish pond at Chartwell |
He lived a comfortable life with many friends, also of course a very cerebral life writing all the time. One of his friends was William Nicholson, an artist, whose paintings of the ephemera of ordinary household items captures more intimately home life. I was struck by his small posies of flowers displayed carelessly in small vases and the silver being cleaned. For I have one of those silver plated tea sets, it sits unloved and unpolished in a cupboard, a wedding present from long ago.
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| The sweet smelling white Nicotiana - William Nicholson |
The Art of War Paintings of the horror of the war, to be found in a Canadian gallery, I remember as a child a portfolio of war drawings in the house, never knew what happened to them though.
Interesting to look at Churchill's and Nicholson's paintings together. Love that Nicotiana. Yes, I watched the programme on Churchill too - most interesting. There is plenty of good TV on at the moment if you take the time to search for it. Often good stuff on BBC Four. I enjoy the Repair Shop this evening and also watch The Sewing Bee although some things about it irritate me. Lovely morning here - we need to soak up the sun before the week end. Enjoy your day.
ReplyDeleteYes it is beautiful the weather, though I shall have to keep taking tomato plants in at night. It was a very good programme and introduced us to a different side of Churchill.
DeleteI love the small, domestic work of William Nicholson. It takes a bit of getting one's head around the fact that his son was Ben Nicholson, husband first of Winifred, later of Barbara Hepworth. Their talent came out in such different ways!
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing me to the other two, although of course I knew of them, dynasties of art. Funnily enough I get confused with Adam Nicholson, author of 'Sea Room', his father Nigel Nicholson was married to Vita Sackville West but I don't think the two branches were related.
ReplyDeleteI think you've skipped a generation Thelma! Nigel was Vita's son, but no, no relation to William Nicholson, I don't think.
DeleteVita was married to Harold Nicholson, need an ancestry trail to get it right but thank you for putting me straight.
Delete500 paintings! That makes me curious to look for more. I didn't pay attention to his paintings when we were at Chartwell, our time was so short... That goldfish pond is pleasingly colorful; is that one that you would call exuberant?
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Well I think is use of colour was bold, especially abroad, he loved the South of France. His painting was of course a distraction from the heavy responsibility of politics and occasionally failure.
ReplyDeleteIf you get bored during the continuing lockdown, why not bring out the "Duraglit" or the "Brasso" to give your neglected tea set a good old clean? When you see tarnished metal return to brightness it's very satisfying.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, if the current occupant of Number 10 decided to try his hand at art I think the resulting canvasses would have something of the Jackson Pollock about them.
Basically I hate cleaning silver or brass, the stuff smells and it goes black as well. As for Johnson, he is good at producing babies and a lot of hot air!
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