[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Winston-Churchill-christies-painting-lily.png?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA painting by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill will be auctioned at Christie\u2019s as part of its Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale in London on October 21. Amaryllis Lily<\/em> (1948) carries an estimate of \u00a3300,000\u2013\u00a3500,000 ($396,000\u2013$661,000). <\/p>\n \n\tThe painting depicts a red amaryllis belladonna, otherwise known as a March lily, blooming in a plant pot situated on a table against a dark backdrop. Churchill gave the painting to his daughter, Lady Mary Soames, who then donated it in 1995 to the Churchill Fellowship. Proceeds from the sale will be used to support Churchill Fellowship\u2019s \u201cMaking Space for the Arts\u201d program.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAmaryllis Lily<\/em> is a striking example of Winston Churchill\u2019s skill as a painter, demonstrating his sophisticated understanding of color and composition,\u201d Pippa Jacomb, the house\u2019s head of the modern British and Irish Art evening sale, said in a statement. \u201cPainted in 1948, the work reflects the important influence of William Nicholson, particularly in its restrained composition and bold use of color, while also revealing the confidence Churchill developed as a still-life painter.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tChurchill\u2019s love for painting started in the 1930s, when he befriended Nicholson, who also became his mentor. In a letter to the British art historian John Rothenstein, Churchill says that Nicholson is the \u201cperson who taught me most about painting.\u201d Churchill and Nicholson would paint at Chartwell Manor, Churchill\u2019s family home in Kent, where a studio was built in the garden.<\/p>\n \n\tChurchill\u2019s auction record was set in 2021 when Christie\u2019s sold Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque<\/em> (1943) for \u00a38.29 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/winston-churchill-painting-auction-at-christies-1234801856\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Winston-Churchill-christies-painting-lily.png?w=1024″] A painting by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill will be auctioned at Christie\u2019s as part of its Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale in London on October 21. Amaryllis Lily (1948) carries an estimate of \u00a3300,000\u2013\u00a3500,000 ($396,000\u2013$661,000). The painting depicts a red amaryllis belladonna, otherwise known as a March lily, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2188264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2188264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2188264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2188264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2188264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}