Born Meyer Tuchschneider in the lower east side of Manhattan in 1925, Richard Deane Taylor achieved immortality among Churchillians when he painted one of the most evocative and accurate portraits of Winston Churchill for Collier’s in 1951, to mark Churchill’s return to office following the British general election.

Years later, Mr. Taylor’s great work was revived on the cover of the Churchill magazine Finest Hour. He then he gave me the privilege of using it on the first English edition of my book of quotations, Churchill By Himself. It also adorns The Churchill Companion, a compendium of facts.

Taylor made…

The youngest and last surviving child Polish immigrants who arrived in the 1920s, Richard lettered for Beck and Constanza Studios and did illustrations for Fawcett Publications’ Shazam! Captain Marvel comic books while a teenager at Brooklyn Tech. Drafted by the Army in 1943, he received three medals for honorable service through 1946. Then he took up study of fine arts at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Back in America in the early Fifties, he produced wonderfully realistic portraits for Colliers, Newsweek and True. He also produced ommercial art for Remington Rand, Dewar’s Whisky, Esso, Revlon, Johnson & Johnson, Schaefer Beer and Air France.

At the High School of Art and Design in the late Sixties, he  is remembered fondly as a beloved instructor. Taylor appreciated the challenges his students from low-income areas  while developing their talents. He is believed to have influenced two generations of comic-book and commercial artists.

Richard completed countless oil and watercolor paintings, pen-and-ink drawings and charcoal/graphite sketches throughout his career. He was an avid photographer who loved travel, guitar and baseball.

Richard leaves behind a son and daughter and three grandchildren. “A man never dies as long as he is remembered.” Richard’s portraiture is a lasting tribute to his life and work.

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Background information from Richard’s obituary in The New York Times.

Q: Who is the artist?

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

A: Richard Deane Taylor, a great man

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.

Mr. Taylor, who died a few years ago, gave permission to use it on the jacket of the British edition of Churchill by Himself, which came to pass. (For a special memory, please click here.)

The publishers did make good efforts to lighten WSC’s eyes (which in life were very light blue). Unfortunately, they cropped the top of WSC’s head, incurring the ire of Lady Soames and this writer, and somewhat spoiling the effect. They promised to fix this in the second edition, and they did so, happily for all, not the least Richard Deane Taylor himself.

Update, 2023

Churchill by Himself  is now in its 4th edition, the latest text being that of Rosetta’s e-book from 2016. We are now working on the 5th (and I trust the final) revised, extended edition, to be published by Hillsdale College Press,  in deluxe leatherbound form by Easton Press, and a Rosetta e-book.

The new edition will be worth having, because it adds close to 1100 new quotations to the original 4400. From the original 350,000 words, it is now approaching half a million. That is 0.4% of Sir Winston Churchill’s total output, but, we hope, the most memorable parts of it.