Standing at Blenheim

New Statue Unveiled at Churchill’s Birthplace

Following the conclusion of the 2024 Churchill Conference in London, many attendees traveled to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, where Sir Winston Churchill was born 150 years ago, to attend the unveiling of a statue by artist Paul Rafferty that depicts Churchill engaging in his favorite pastime of painting. The bronze statue is a copy of that unveiled earlier this year in the south of France.

The ceremony took place on Sunday, October 27th. The Duke of Marlborough and his sister Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill hosted the event. The Duke unveiled the statue along with International Churchill Society President Randolph Churchill and Churchill grandsons Rupert and Jeremy Soames. Other members of the Churchill family present included Emma Soames, Minnie Churchill, and Marina Brounger.

The striking, two-meter bronze statue shows the former Prime Minister standing and painting at an easel. At his feet sits a Pol Roger ice bucket in which rests Churchill’s favourite cuvée, Champagne Pol Roger Brut Vintage 1928. The addition to the grounds of the palace built for the first Duke of Marlborough by Queen Anne marks the sesquicentennial of the birth of the most famous person ever born at Blenheim.

Paul Rafferty, born in Oxford in 1965, moved from London to California in 1989, where he wrote, recorded and performed with the likes of Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton, Pat Benatar and Johnny Hallyday. In 2008, as an artist, he moved to the French Riviera, where he became fascinated by Winston Churchill’s paintings in Provence. Having exhibited around the world, he is represented by the Portland Gallery in London and has his own gallery in St-Paul-de-Vence on the Riviera.

Churchill was an avid painter, having taken it up during a family holiday in 1915 and continued the hobby throughout his life, creating over 500 works depicting a variety of subjects, including his goldfish pond at Chartwell and the landscapes of Marrakesh.

Bulletin #198 — Nov 2024