January 1, 1970

Recognition in his final years

In 1948, The Royal Academy unanimously appointed Churchill as Honorary Academician Extraordinary and his paintings hung as of right as a member at the Royal Academy’s annual Exhibition. The Director of the Tate Gallery, Sir John Rothenstein, asked Churchill (on the request of the Trustees) for one of his paintings for the national collection. Rothenstein visited Chartwell to help select the painting and the two of them chose one of the Loup River, in France, painted in 1936. Churchill received many invitations from Britain and overseas to loan pictures for exhibitions or to reproduce his paintings, including one for silk scarves, but these were generally refused. However he was rather pleased when, in 1948, the Hallmark greeting card company, asked if it could use some paintings on their cards.

In 1958, he paid two long visits to La Pausa where, although his interest in painting still remained, he began to feel less and less inclined to paint; his physical strength was finally failing. In 1959, Churchill visited Morocco – and Marrakech (where he painted from his balcony at La Mamounia) – for the final time. And when he next visited La Pausa, later in 1959, he found himself no longer able to wield his paintbrush – and put away his oils and canvas for the last time.