Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

Books, Arts
& Curiosities
Below: “Mimizan,” painted by WSC at the
property of his friend “Bendor,” The Duke
of Westminster, near Bordeaux, spring
1920 (Coombs 69). Although the author
has not yet tracked the paintings
“Charles Morin” exhibited in Paris in
1921, they are likely to have been recent
French scenes like this one.
All paintings reproduced by kind permission
of Churchill Heritage Ltd.
Charles Morin and the Search
for Churchill’s Nom de Palette
Why did Winston Churchill
exhibit his paintings under
the name of a real painter
only recently deceased
DAVID COOMBS
The first public exhibition of
Churchill’s paintings was held in
Paris in 1921 at the Galerie
Druet, a famous and important establishment
at 20 rue Royale, specializing
in Post-Impressionist painters of the
early 20th century. The paintings were
shown under the pseudonym of
Charles Morin, and six were sold.
This is the story, though the surrounding
facts are curious. First, the
gallery archives contain no reference to
the exhibition, and second, Charles
Morin was the name of a real French
painter, who died in 1919.
In January 1921, Churchill was
in Paris for discussions about extending
his responsibilities, as Britain’s newly
appointed Colonial Secretary, to
Palestine and Mesopotamia: intense
and complex deliberations detailed at
length in Sir Martin Gilbert’s official
biography.
Despite his official duties,
Churchill was able to take time off to
think about his paintings in the
company of Major Gerald Geiger, head
of the British Military Mission to Paris:
an old school friend and one of WSC’s
contemporaries at Sandhurst. On 13
January, Major Geiger wrote to Sir
Archibald
Sinclair, then
Churchill’s
private secretary:
“The S. of S.
[Secretary of
State] went with
me and an art
critic to visit the
works of the
painter
CHARLES
MORIN. The
works of this
artist were produced
and
criticised for
forty minutes by
the gentleman in
question and the
S. of S. was very
interested!”
Unfortunately,
there is no clue
in Geiger’s
lengthy letter to
the gallery or
location he and Churchill visited. 1
Geiger’s letter is quoted in part
by Sir Martin Gilbert, who explains
that the “Charles Morin was in fact
Churchill himself; it was the first
public exhibition of his paintings.” 2
__________________________________
Mr. Coombs (david.coombs@ artnewsletter.com)
is the leading authority on
Churchill’s paintings, co-author with Minnie
Churchill of Winston Churchill: His Life
Through His Paintings, and the editor of artnewsletter.com
FINEST HOUR 148 / 31
In his accompanying Companion
Volume, Sir Martin adds that the
“Morin” paintings “were being exhibited
for the first time, under a
pseudonym,” and that Churchill had
suggested the name “Mr. Spencer,”
which he had sometimes used “when
seeking to travel incognito to France on
munitions business during the war.” 3
Whether Geiger knew that
“Morin” was Churchill is not clear,
although his use of capitals for >>