iWallace CollectionMarylebone
Winston Churchill: The Painter
A major retrospective of over 50 of Sir Winston Churchill's paintings, from wartime scenes and Mediterranean landscapes to intimate views of his home at Chartwell.
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You walk into the first room and Churchill is already there, in a photograph: at his easel, brush in hand, cigar in mouth. He took up painting at 40, after the Gallipoli disaster, and made more than 500 canvases over five decades. More than 50 hang here, around half from private collections that are rarely shown.
The hang is chronological: early portraits from John Lavery's studio and war pictures from the Belgian front, then Chartwell, still lifes of silver and bottles, the Riviera and a room of Marrakech. The audio guide is narrated by Gary Oldman, so the paintings are explained by the man who won an Oscar for playing their painter.
Critics agree he wasn't a major artist. The Guardian's Olivia McEwan found the charm in the amateurishness, and the Telegraph's Alastair Sooke called him "surprisingly decent", singling out the Moroccan pinks, lavenders and greens. Tickets are £18, £12 for under-26s, £6 for ages 12 to 17 and free for under-12s. Photography isn't allowed.
Look for
Chartwell in the snow
Look for his country house under snow, painted around 1924, the one canvas the Telegraph's critic called "delicious".
The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque
The Marrakech minaret he painted in 1943 for Roosevelt, his only wartime canvas, later sold for £8.3m when Angelina Jolie auctioned it.
The Todhra Gorge, Morocco
Limestone cliffs in an Atlas Mountains river canyon, shaped like vast, distorted skulls, from 1951.
The Beach at Walmer
A 1938 Kent beach with a cannon pointing across the Channel, which the Guardian read as a metaphor.
Les Zoraïdes, Cap Martin
A Riviera pool scene laid down in horizontal brushstrokes that the curators read as his "sheer joy in painting".
Good for
- Going Solo
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want great painting: critics agreed he was a decent amateur, not a major artist.
With kids
Under-12s go free with an adult and 12 to 17s pay £6. There's a free family activity trail.
Free in the same building
- European Arms and ArmourOne of Europe's finest arms and armour collections: medieval swords, tournament armour, and elaborately decorated firearms across several ground-floor galleries.
- French Art and FurnitureThe finest collection of French 18th-century art outside France: Boucher, Fragonard, Watteau, and opulent Louis XV and XVI furniture.
- Sèvres PorcelainThe largest collection of Sèvres porcelain outside France, alongside Dutch Delftware and other European ceramics amassed by the Hertford family.
- The Great GalleryThe grandest room in Hertford House: Rubens, Poussin, and Frans Hals's The Laughing Cavalier hang alongside the finest Old Masters in the collection.
Also at Wallace Collection
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Image credits
8
- Winston Churchill: The Painter© Churchill Heritage Ltd. Photo: ©Royal Academy of Arts, London; photographer: John Hammond.
- RootsCourtesy of The Photographers' Gallery
- Sanlé Sory: Colour Years© Sanlé Sory, 2026. Courtesy of Tezeta.
- Snap Happy! How Children Became PhotographersCourtesy of The Photographers' Gallery
- Wallace CollectionSimon Burchell / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Photographers' GalleryThe wub / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Royal Academy of ArtsYair Haklai / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wellcome CollectionOsama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0