Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

Charles Morin great pleasure to know
that at this, the first showing of a
number of pictures, he had a market.” 5
We have since learned that the prices
were modest, at least to certain friends.
Churchill wrote to Jean Hamilton, wife
of Sir Ian in October 1921:
You expressed a wish to buy one of my
pictures the other day. I have been
doubtful about selling any of them
because I don’t think they are good
enough and also because I am steadily
improving. Nevertheless as several
people have been asking to buy, I have
said that I will sell them at £50 a piece
this year. 6
The work Lady Hamilton chose
was “Ightham Mote” (Coombs 235).
Charles Montag evidently played
a key role in the exhibition. As Lady
Soames wrote, Montag “arranged for
his friend to exhibit his paintings at the
Galerie Druet,” where Montag had
held “a one-man exhibition of his work
in 1914….” 7 (As far as I know, this is
the first published reference to the specific
location of Churchill’s exhibition.)
Although he is little regarded
today, Montag was a friend and regular
painting companion of Churchill until
his death in 1956. Born in Switzerland
in 1880, he must have been as energetic
as he was charming, and
amazingly well-connected with
Impressionist painters, including
Monet and Renoir, as well as Post-
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Impressionists like Bonnard and
Matisse. He turned these talents to
good account as an exhibition organizer
and adviser to art collectors.
Montag was a landscape painter,
which would have given him much
practical insight and sympathy to
Churchill’s favourite subjects—
another likely reason why he and
Churchill took to each other. Two
paragraphs from Churchill’s famous
essay, “Painting as a Pastime,” refer I
think to Montag—and throw considerable
light on Churchill’s innately
modest attitude to his own works:
Frenchmen talk and write just as well
about painting as they have done about
love, about war, about diplomacy, or>>