Winston Churchill: Painting on the French Riviera

Description

Discovering painting at the age of 40, Sir Winston Churchill revelled in his new pastime. He went on to produce over 550 paintings, with over 130 of them on the French Riviera. The fellow artist and Riviera resident Paul Rafferty has tracked down many of the locations Churchill used in Provence, an area the great man so aptly called 'paintatious'. Many of these locations are newly discovered and his 'fearless impressions' stand alongside to illustrate how Churchill captured them on canvas.

Paul Rafferty, as a musician, moved from London to California in 1989, writing, recording and performing with many leading artists of the day. Later, as an artist, he moved to the French Riviera in 2008, where he became familiar with - and fascinated by - Winston Churchill's paintings in Provence. A highly successful artist in his own right, Rafferty has exhibited around the world and is represented by the Portland Gallery in London. He also has his own gallery in St Paul de Vence on the Riviera where he lives with his wife, Isabelle and three children, Emanuelle, Charlotte and Harrison.

'Paul Rafferty's excellent book, Winston Churchill: Paintings on the French Riviera, is like a well-curated exhibition. Sir Winston Churchill loved the Riviera, he was at home there and it clearly inspired him to paint at this best.' - H.R.H The Prince of Wales