A late amateur painter, Winston Churchill produced more than five hundred works. Among the best known: The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, which will go on sale this Monday 1is March by the famous London auction house Christie’s. The emblematic British Prime Minister (1874-1965), painter and writer in his spare time, found Marrakech a place of “captivating” inspiration. More than a bright view of Marrakech, this painting could not be more steeped in history. It was the only painting created by Churchill during World War II. Indeed, it was painted at the end of the Casablanca conference in January 1943, just as the Allies were rallying after defeating Nazi Germany.
Today, the oil on canvas, offered for sale by American actress Angelina Jolie, is considered “to be Sir Winston Churchill’s most important painting” because of its “interweaving in the history of the 20th century.e century, ”writes British art historian Barry Phipps in the catalog. This explains how much The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque is already fueling speculation, with estimates ranging from 1.7 to 2.8 million euros, according to the Christie’s website. A record sum all the more surprising given that the politician is not recognized as a genius of painting.
A work steeped in history
The Conservative leader started painting late, when he was 40 years old. Whoever liked to flee political storms and the grayness of London had discovered the light of the ocher city of Marrakech in the 1930s, at the time of the French protectorate, and made a total of six trips there in 23 years. “Here, in these vast palm groves emerging from the desert, the traveler can be sure of eternal sunshine” and “contemplate with incessant satisfaction the majestic and snow-covered panorama of the Atlas mountains”, he wrote in 1936 in the newspaper British Daily Mail.
The political monster liked to get lost in the maze of streets of the old town, go on a picnic in the Ourika valley, on the heights of Marrakech, and set up his easel on the balconies of the grand hotel La Mamounia or the Villa Taylor – which would become a landmark of the European jet set in the 1970s.It is from this villa that he painted the Koutoubia mosque, after the historic Anfa conference, organized in January 1943 in Casablanca with the American President Franklin Roosevelt and the leader of the Free French Forces, General de Gaulle, and in presence of Sultan Mohammed V, to prepare the strategy of the Allies. A legend reported by his entourage has it that at the time he said to Roosevelt: “You cannot go all this way in North Africa without seeing Marrakech.” […]. I must be with you when you see the sunset over the Atlas Mountains. ”
Now owned by the Moroccan royal family, the Villa Taylor can no longer be visited. The place offers an exceptional view over the medina, on the Bab Doukkala side, to the Koutoubia mosque and in the background the High Atlas covered with snow ”, according to Abderrazzak Benchaâbane, one of the botanists of the famous“ Majorelle garden ”in Marrakech. A period press photograph shows Roosevelt and Churchill together admiring the sunset over the panorama that will inspire the painting.
This simple and unadorned landscape represents the minaret, symbol of power of the Almohad dynasty (XIIe century), embraced by the ramparts of the ancient city and leaning against the snow-capped mountains. Churchill offered it to Roosevelt at the time. Sold by one of the Roosevelt sons in the 1950s, the painting changed hands several times, before landing in 2011 in the collection of Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt – long before their separation.
Churchill, a lover of Morocco
From Churchill’s first visit to Morocco in 1935, another canvas has remained, Scene in Marrakech, also up for auction at Christie’s in early March. Estimated between 340,000 and 578,000 euros, the painting represents a detail of the palm grove at the foot of the Atlas.
At the time, the MP was staying at the La Mamounia Hotel, where he painted seven canvases and worked on a biography of his ancestor, General Marlborough, after Celia Sandys, one of his granddaughters, who undertook in 2002 a memorial trip to Morocco.
Inexhaustible on Mamounia, Winston Churchill appreciates the “truly remarkable panorama” from his room, as he says in a letter to his wife Clémentine. “He used to go from balcony to balcony to watch for the light, as if to better capture the colors and reproduce them on his canvases”, assures Meryem Mikou, communications officer of the palace. During its successive renovations, the luxury hotel has lost all trace of this illustrious passage, even if a suite and a bar still bear its name.
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