![]() ![]() Among the presents arriving at Number 10 Downing Street were a floral arrangement in the shape of a cigar, sent from Israel, and a sixpenny postal order - the pocket money of a boy from Hereford. Tributes and birthday gifts have been pouring in from all over the world. Winston Churchill detested the 80th birthday portrait commissioned as a gift by the Houses of Parliament in 1954 and painted by Graham Sutherland, which depicted him as an ageing man. However that may be, whatever may befall, I am sure I shall never forget the emotions of this day." "I hope I still have some service to render. "I am now nearing the end of my journey," he said. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar."įinally, he acknowledged that age was inevitably drawing his 54 years in politics to a close. "It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. "Their will was resolute and remorseless, and as it proved unconquerable. "I have never accepted what many people have kindly said - namely, that I inspired the nation," he told them. In his speech of thanks, Sir Winston referred to the period in his career for which he is most revered - his leadership through the dark years of the Second World War. The Father of the House, David Grenfell, then presented him with an illuminated book signed by almost every member of parliament. Then blue hangings were drawn back from a new portrait of Sir Winston by the artist Graham Sutherland, a gift from both Houses to the prime minister. ![]() He paid tribute to his formidable opponent, calling him "the last of the great orators who can touch the heights." It was all a million miles from the white cliff of a lower lip Yousuf Karsh had caught beautifully in the dark days of the war.As Sir Winston and Lady Churchill appeared through St Stephen's entrance, a drummer beat out a "V" in morse code - a tribute to the victory salute which became the prime minister's trademark.Īs the cheers died down, the Leader of the Opposition, Clement Attlee, gave the first speech. Here was slackness, loss, a kind of absence. He painted an obituary: a magnificent ruin, but a ruin all the same. Sutherland’s subject had asked him whether he wanted the cherub or the bulldog, as if there were only two possible interpretations of his character, and perhaps in revenge for this insult Sutherland now decided to deliver not some visual blandishment, but the truth. On the other was Sutherland, a superb painter who was quietly steaming. On one side was Churchill, the crumbling egotist, then recovering from a stroke. You could, he said, call these pictures “war photography”. In Churchill’s studio at Chartwell, his home in Kent, Schama held up a series of black-and-white stills of the prime minister, taken during his sittings with Graham Sutherland. (Episode one was devoted to the relationship between portraiture and power.) His skill was demonstrated to perfection in the first ten minutes, during which he told the story of the portrait that was commissioned to celebrate the 80th birthday of Winston Churchill in 1954 – the same painting that was famously burned by Clementine Churchill just a few weeks after its very public unveiling. I won’t ramble on here about how he dealt, in the first film (broadcast on BBC2 on 30 September), with such hoary subjects as the painted image of Elizabeth I, or the effect of photography on the relationship between Queen Victoria and her people. I would be tempted to use the word “masterful” if it didn’t sound so stupidly grandiloquent. ![]() His passion for his subject is sincere, his curiosity contagious rather than effortfully cloying. So, too, is his way with words, so succinct and yet slyly romantic. Schama’s ability to structure, pace and deliver a televisual essay is unmatched by any other BBC historian. Nothing now stands in the way of my enjoyment of Face of Britain (Wednesdays, 9pm). All the same, it seems to me a good thing. Why this should be is anyone’s guess: perhaps he tired of the stick he used to take about it. Simon Schama’s arms used to windmill wildly on screen, but in his fantastic new series his hands are most often to be found in his pockets. For his 80th birthday, Winston Churchill was presented with a full-length portrait by artist Graham Sutherland. ![]()
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