After Daubigny by Winston Churchill. c1915

After Daubigny by Winston Churchill. c1915
Churchill started painting in around 1915 at a time when he was suffering a deep depression. With the encouragement of his sister-in-law Gwendoline and Hazel Lavery,, wife of painter John Lavery, he took to painting as a regular pastime. This painting is an early work and is a copy of a painting by French artist Charles-Francois Daubigny entitled ‘The Ferry at Bonnières’ owned by the Duke of Marlborough. It shows the early style of painting that Churchill would employ throughout his life; simple pastoral landscapes and scenes filled with light, light application of paint and long views into the distance. He made two other versions of this painting.