One of his previous works, sold by actress Angelina Jolie, soared last year to more than 8 million euros. Several paintings by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill will once again be in the spotlight this Wednesday at
Christie’s in London. And more particularly one representing the famous Trois Sautets bridge in Aix-en-Provence, painted before him by Cézanne. His estimate? Between 1.7 million and 2.9 million euros. “It’s huge, it’s because it’s Winston Churchill, it’s not so much the artistic dimension that wins,” says Bruno Ely, director of the Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence.
He is familiar with the history of this painting, because it was none other than his grandfather who photographed Winston Churchill painting it. We are far from the image of Epinal of the solitary painter with his easel in nature. “He was surrounded by bodyguards, there were kinds of screens to protect him from view, a large parasol for the sun,” he says. We are in September 1948, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and Winston Churchill the liberator is then at the height of his glory.
The “Churchill Blue”
“We will receive it almost royally,” continues Bruno Ely. The Aix museums will deposit works of art in his apartment at the Hôtel du Roy René, then the most beautiful establishment in the city, where all the celebrities stayed. Presumably someone like Winston Churchill, who is an enlightened amateur painter, is familiar with Cézanne’s work. This 17th century bridge is a recurring motif in the Provençal painter. It is even one of his first early paintings, recalls the director of the Granet Museum, where an entire room is dedicated to the painter. “Cézanne returns to it at the end of his life, when he suffers from diabetes and heat, and takes refuge at the edge of the Arc”, explains Bruno Ely.
With this painting of the Trois Sautets bridge, Winston Churchill is part of a well-known score: “It is a very figurative painting, comments the director of the museum. We feel that it is someone who looked at the Impressionists. He is not at the forefront of contemporary creation when he paints it. It’s very classic, almost conventional. Winston Churchill donated it in 1955 to his Swiss friend and paint maker Willy Sax. The two men met in Zurich in 1946 and their friendship lasted until the end of their lives. Both, says Christie’s, had a “common passion for oil painting.”
“This scene would also have really pleased Willy Sax, because he was an avid sports fisherman and the river surrounding the Trois Sautets bridge was famous for its fishing”, also writes the auction house. Willy Sax will even develop a “Churchill Blue”. It is his descendants who are now selling this painting in Aix-en-Provence.