In the summer of 1922, while on the lookout for a suitable country house, Churchill caught sight of a property near Westerham in Kent, and fell instantly in love with it. Chartwell was to become a much-loved family home and with typical enthusiasm, Churchill personally undertook many major works of construction (largely with his own hands), such as a dam, a swimming pool, the building of a red brick wall to surround the vegetable garden, and the re-tiling of a cottage at the bottom of the garden.
“Mallows”
The 1959 exhibition was only the fifth retrospective of a living artist to be held at the Academy. Sixty-one paintings were shown in the Diploma Gallery; thirty-five had recently returned from a tour in America and the others were chosen from the Chartwell collection. London art critic John London commented, ‘Everybody seemed bowled over by those bright, strong, confident pictures…’
“A Study Of Boats”
Churchill took up painting as an antidote to the anguish he felt during World War I. Painting became a constant solace and preoccupation and he rarely spent a few days away from home without taking his canvas and brushes. Even during his tour of France’s Maginot Line in the middle of August 1939 as World War II loomed, Churchill managed to snatch a painting holiday with friends near Dreux.