CHURCHILL, Winston Leonard Spencer, Prime Minister . Typed letter signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), with autograph closing, to Mrs. Douglas Chandor wife of the celebrated painter, London, 20 February 1947. CHURCHILL ON 'GENERALISSIMO STALIN' AND HIS HOPE "THAT EUROPE... WILL UNITE AND THUS RECAPTURE HER TRUE GREATNESS" An excellent letter to the wife of a well-known portrait painter, Douglas Chandor who had executed portraits of Franklin Roosevelt and many other statesmen. The former Prime Minister expresses pleasure in the "charming and life-like portrait your husband has painted of Mrs. Churchill. It hangs in a place of honor in our London home and is much admired by everyone and a delight to me and the family. I have been studying the booklet, 'The Truth Shall Make You Free,' [a Jehovah's witness publication] which you were so good as to send me...I sincerely hope that Europe, in her present agony, will unite and thus recapture her true greatness. I am sorry to learn that Generalissimo Stalin is being tardy in giving Mr. Chandor some sittings for the historic picture. But I do not feel that I can approach him myself in this matter, in which I am sure you will understand me." He concludes: "I have the most lively recollections of our meetings in the United States and of my sittings with Mr. Chandor." The "historic picture" that Churchill refers to is a planned triple portrait by Chandor of the Big Three: Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Chandor, a British artist, executed his first portrait of President Roosevelt in 1935; a well-known oil sketch from 1945 is in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. It was intended that three versions of the triple portrait would be completed, one for each of the three Allies, Britain, Russia and the United States. Churchill sat for his portrait in 1946, but "Generalissimo" Stalin refused to pose. Without the chance to paint Stalin from life, Chandor felt that the painting's integrity would be compromised, and it was never executed (see American Art Journal , 18:4, p.43).
CHURCHILL, Winston Leonard Spencer, Prime Minister . Typed letter signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), with autograph closing, to Mrs. Douglas Chandor wife of the celebrated painter, London, 20 February 1947. CHURCHILL ON 'GENERALISSIMO STALIN' AND HIS HOPE "THAT EUROPE... WILL UNITE AND THUS RECAPTURE HER TRUE GREATNESS" An excellent letter to the wife of a well-known portrait painter, Douglas Chandor who had executed portraits of Franklin Roosevelt and many other statesmen. The former Prime Minister expresses pleasure in the "charming and life-like portrait your husband has painted of Mrs. Churchill. It hangs in a place of honor in our London home and is much admired by everyone and a delight to me and the family. I have been studying the booklet, 'The Truth Shall Make You Free,' [a Jehovah's witness publication] which you were so good as to send me...I sincerely hope that Europe, in her present agony, will unite and thus recapture her true greatness. I am sorry to learn that Generalissimo Stalin is being tardy in giving Mr. Chandor some sittings for the historic picture. But I do not feel that I can approach him myself in this matter, in which I am sure you will understand me." He concludes: "I have the most lively recollections of our meetings in the United States and of my sittings with Mr. Chandor." The "historic picture" that Churchill refers to is a planned triple portrait by Chandor of the Big Three: Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Chandor, a British artist, executed his first portrait of President Roosevelt in 1935; a well-known oil sketch from 1945 is in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. It was intended that three versions of the triple portrait would be completed, one for each of the three Allies, Britain, Russia and the United States. Churchill sat for his portrait in 1946, but "Generalissimo" Stalin refused to pose. Without the chance to paint Stalin from life, Chandor felt that the painting's integrity would be compromised, and it was never executed (see American Art Journal , 18:4, p.43).
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