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Winston Churchill
The Library of Sir Philip Sassoon's House at Lympne

c. 1928

About the Item

"Sir Philip Sassoon's House at Lympne" is an oil on canvas painting by Winston Churchill, circa 1928. The artwork size is 20 x 24 inches. The framed size is 29 x 25 x 3.12 inches. The work is signed lower left, "WSC". Churchill counted as both a friend and political ally, Phillip Sassoon – one of Britain's great hosts, cousin of famed poet Siegfried Sassoon, and the man upon whom Noël Coward crowned "a phenomenon that will never recur”. Sassoon and his sister Sybil were among Winston and Clementine’s great friends. As described by Lady Soames in her book, “Philip Sassoon was a man of charm and distinction, and he dispensed princely hospitality to a brilliant and varied circle of friends at his two country houses, Port Lympne and Trent Park. He made a remarkable collection of works of art. Winston received much help and encouragement from Sassoon, and painted many pictures of both his house and gardens. One of the ways in which Winston taught himself to paint was by copying pictures he admired. With his large and varied collection, Sir Philip was able to be of help in this way, too, and Winston studied and copied quite a number of his friend’s pictures. Sassoon was a friend and patron of John Singer Sargent, and owned many of his works. Winston admired several of these, and found them highly instructive; in 1926, [less than two years before this painting was created] Philip Sassoon wrote Winston this note, which accompanied a generous present and a helpful loan: My dear Winston, You have often admired the picture of John Lewis Brown of the two horsemen that hung at Trent, so I am sending it to you with my best wishes in the hope that you find a corner for it at Chartwell. I am also sending the little Sargent picture which you asked for. He painted it when he was 18!” One is struck by Sassoon’s generosity, and can see in later works how his close study of Sargent influenced Churchill. Provenance: The Studio, Chartwell Miss Arabella Churchill Sale: Sotheby’s London, May 19, 1982, lot 142 Private Collection Sale: Sotheby’s London, July 11, 2013, lot 28 Private Collection, acquired from the above Literature: D. Coombs and M. Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill: His Life and His Paintings, Lyme Regis, 2011, p. 87, no. C 19, fig. 155
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