Winston Churchill
and the
Pursuit of Painting

Millennium Gate Museum

The Art of Diplomacy: Winston Churchill and the Pursuit of Painting will display more than 30 paintings by Winston Churchill, many of which have never before been publicly exhibited, and examine the notion that painting may have helped save Western civilization. Although a hobby, Churchill wrote of the effect that it had on him personally and professionally.

At the beginning in 1915, painting literally pulled Churchill out of his darkest political days and set him on his journey towards his finest hour. It was painting, he said, that helped him cope with the stress and strain of his political life, and allowed him to be productive as he developed his thinking about the rising danger of Hitler and Germany.

In addition, Churchill found that the skills he learned from painting made his leadership more effective and he used his painter’s eye to achieve his political and diplomatic goals.