If you are a Moroccophile, a lover of fine art and have around £250,000 in spare change then we have a suggestion as to how you might spend it. An oil painting by Sir Winston Churchill is expected to fetch that price at auction at Sotheby's in London on Monday.
View of Tinherir was painted by the newly re-elected Prime Minister in 1951 during one of his frequent trips to Marrakech. He gave it to US General George C. Marshall as a symbol of Anglo-American solidarity in 1953. It is now being sold by the general's granddaughter, American actress Kitty Winn.
The art world did not know of its existence until the family decided to put it on the market. Morocco had been the site for the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, where Churchill met US President Franklin Roosevelt, whose delegation was led by his Army Chief of Staff, General George C Marshall. Churchill would come to revere Marshall as 'the last great American' and 'the true architect of victory'.
Sarah Thomas from Sotheby's said: "Churchill took up painting very late. He saw it as a hobby, he didn't see himself as a professional painter. It was something that he really loved doing. Most importantly, he found relief from all the pressures of his work in his painting. It was quite a therapeutic act. He would paint while mulling over speeches and decisions. "
His work does vary in quality, everyone would acknowledge that. A lot of his paintings are pretty poor and amateur and full of splodges. "But over the years he learnt quite a lot from his artist friends. In his later work you can see that."
Two paintings by Churchill were recently sold for more than £300,000 each at auction. The painting will go under the hammer at Sotheby's in London on 11 December.
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