LONDON ā A portrait of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work the British leader loathed went on display Tuesday at Churchillās birthplace ahead of an auction in June.
The painting by modernist artist Graham Sutherland was made in preparation for a larger portrait that Churchill hated and which was later destroyed ā an episode recounted in the TV series āThe Crown.ā
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The surviving oil-on-canvas study shows Churchillās head in profile against a dark background. It is expected to sell for between 500,000 pounds and 800,000 pounds ($622,000 and $995,000) at Sothebyās in London on June 6.
Sutherland was commissioned by the Houses of Parliament to paint Churchill to mark his 80th birthday in 1954. The full-length portrait was unveiled in Parliament that year, with Churchill calling it, with a smirk, āa remarkable example of modern art.ā
Churchill is said to have complained that the painting āmakes me look half-witted, which I aināt.ā It was delivered to his home and never seen again. The Churchill family disclosed years later that it had been destroyed.
Its fate was recreated with poetic license in an episode of āThe Crownā in which Churchillās wife, Clementine, watches the painting go up in flames.
Andre Zlattinger, Sothebyās head of modern British and Irish art, said that in the surviving study, āChurchill is caught in a moment of absent-minded thoughtfulness, and together with the backstory of its creation, it gives the impression of a man truly concerned with his image.ā
Sothebyās put the picture on public display inside the room where Churchill was born 150 years ago at Blenheim Palace, a country mansion 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of London. Visitors can see it there until Sunday. It will go on show at Sothebyās offices in New York May 3-16 and London May 25-June 5.