They divorced in 2019 and the painting has now been sold at auction by the Jolie Family Collection. The painting was sold after the US president died in 1945 and it had several owners before actress Angelina Jolie and her then partner Brad Pitt bought it in 2011. It is not an ordinary gift between leaders – this is soft power and it is what the special relationship is all about.”

Mr Orchard said: “This is Churchill’s diplomacy at its most personal and intense. He sent the painting to Roosevelt as a birthday present and a memento of the trip. “Here are two great leaders sharing the briefest respite from the traumas of war.”Ĭhurchill remained for another day to paint the view of the mosque framed by the mountains. “It is an incredibly poignant moment,” he told the auctioneer’s in-house publication. According to Nick Orchard, Christie’s head of modern British and Irish art, Roosevelt was mesmerised by the scene. The two stayed at a villa outside the city and watched the sun go down from its five-storey tower. See also: Comerford Collection of Irish Miniature Paintings to be ExhibitedĬhurchill persuaded Roosevelt to stay after the conference and take the 150-mile drive to Marrakech, saying he could not travel to North Africa without seeing the sun set on the Atlas Mountains. It was finished after the Casablanca Conference of January 1943, where Churchill and US president Franklin Roosevelt planned the defeat of Nazi Germany. The image of the 12th-century mosque in Marrakech at sunset with the Atlas Mountains in the background was the only painting completed by the wartime prime minister during the 1939-45 war. The sale price was almost four times the upper pre-sale estimate and it also beat the previous record price for a Churchill painting, which was just under £1.8m. One, Tower Of The Koutoubia Mosque, (seen above), owned by Angelina Jolie, sold to an unidentified buyer for £8.285m. Paintings by Sir Winston Churchill have sold at Christie’s in London for record prices. But what inspired the great man to paint? Winston Churchill’s Art has sold for record prices at auction. Winston Churchill’s Art and His Inspiration to Paint

Westerfield winston churchill painting