Winston Churchill, His Life as a Painter, A Memoir By His Daughter

by Mary Soames

Book Overview

Not so much an evaluation of Churchill's art as an exploration of its place in his life, this lavishly produced volume is drawn from private and public collections and complete with a catalogue... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670836265
• ISBN13: 9780670836260
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Penguin Books Canada, Limited
• Weight: 2.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"

Customer Reviews

Inspiring and a fun read

I enjoyed reading this oversized book, I went through it like water! The book is well illustrated and gives a good sampling of his works (landscapes, still lifes & portraiture). It is an easy read, this book was not written for those in academia--its a very approachable book. The author, the daughter of Winston Churchill, Mary Soams, did a marvelous job of creating a lively narrative. She goes into the reasons why he began to paint, what his philosphy on painting was and how he learned (via a wide circle of artist friends). She also mentioned that he was accepting of using modern inventions (photos) to aid in his memory and composition of creating his paintings. She also included many humorous stories of her father. The book is very inspiring in that Churchill, who already had an extremely full life and who started late in life painting, was able to create such beautiful works of art. The book shows that he did have natural talent, BUT, that he also worked hard to build upon that talent and the book clearly shows this. The chapters are lavishly illustrated with his paintings, and many times the book describes the creation of the paintings that are in the book (and it includes the page number where you can find them). My only complaint is that in the last few chapters there are virtually no paintings and I wish I could have seen more of his later works, even though they may not have been up to the same artistic value of his earlier works. This was a fun and inspiring read, go out and buy this book.