Painting as a Pastime

Winston S. Churchill

May 2014 · Winston S. Churchill Essays and Other Works Book 1 · Rosetta Books

About this ebook

The first volume in a collection essays and journalism from the legendary politician and Nobel Prize–winning author explores his artistic pursuits.
 
Legendary politician and military strategist Winston S. Churchill was a master not only of the battlefield, but of the page and the podium. Over the course of forty books and countless speeches, broadcasts, news items and more, he addressed a country at war and at peace, thrilling with victory but uneasy with its shifting role on the global stage. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” During his lifetime, he enthralled readers and brought crowds roaring to their feet; in the years since his death, his skilled writing has inspired generations of eager history buffs.
 
Best known for his political genius and keen eye for military tactics, Churchill was a man of many talents—not the least of which was painting. Throughout his life, Churchill painted to relieve his mind from the demands of leadership and to keep the “black dog” of depression at bay.
 
Included in this volume are Churchill’s meditations on painting as a salve for the spirit and an essential creative pursuit. His love for the craft comes to life in this concise yet impassioned work. This volume includes eighteen reprints of Churchill’s original work in oil, giving the reader a window into the little-known creative and artistic skill of this prominent figure in twentieth century history.

About the author

Sir Winston S. Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published.During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positionsincluding President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitlerand played an important part in the Allies eventual triumph.One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works.