Can you please tell me who the artist is who created the lovely image of Winston Churchill on your book Churchill by Himself? —M.D., London
With pleasure. He is Richard Deane Taylor, who painted the original for a Collier’s cover in 1951 after Churchill had returned to Downing Street following the General Election. Click here for his virtual gallery.
We first used the painting on the cover of Finest Hour #126, Spring 2005, which can be downloaded as a not-very-good .pdf, though originals are available from the Churchill Centre.
Mr. Taylor, who is alive and well and living in New York, wrote to remind us we had not asked permission, thinking the Collier’s copyrights expired. I apologized and asked permission to use it on the jacket of the British edition of Churchill by Himself, which came to pass.
Unfortunately, while the publishers did make good efforts to lighten his eyes (which in life were very light blue), they cropped the top of WSC’s head, incurring the ire of Lady Soames and this writer, and somewhat spoiling the effect, although they have promised to fix this in the second edition—”if there is one.” From page 547 of Churchill by Himself:
George Bernard Shaw to WSC, London, 1923]: “Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend—if you have one.”
Churchill to Shaw: “Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend the second—if there is one.”
(The play was “St. Joan.”)
