Portrait of Winston Churchill (Sutherland)

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The Portrait of Winston Churchill was a painting by English artist Graham Sutherland that depicted the British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, created in 1954. It was disliked by Churchill and within a year it was destroyed. In 1954, Sutherland was commissioned to paint a full-length portrait of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Sutherland received 1,000 guineas for the painting, a sum funded by donations from members of the House of Commons and House of Lords. The painting was presented to Churchill by both Houses of Parliament at a public ceremony in Westminster Hall on his 80th birthday on 30 November 1954. Finding the depiction deeply unflattering, Churchill disliked the portrait intensely. After its public presentation, the painting was taken to his country home at Chartwell but not displayed. For a long time it was assumed that it was destroyed by Lady Churchill; however, in the course of research for a biography of Churchill, audio recordings were cited that attribute the...

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