West Front of Blenheim Palace 

Winston Churchill painted the West Front of Blenheim Palace with oil on canvas. We see the building through a screen of foliage, rendered in muted greens and browns. Churchill was not a professional artist but took up painting relatively late in life, mostly landscapes of places he visited. He was a product of Harrow School and Sandhurst military academy, training grounds for Britain's elite. His identity was inextricably bound up with the British state, and his artistic activities, like this painting, took place within the long shadow of his political career. Blenheim Palace was a gift to the Duke of Marlborough for his military victories. We might ask, then, what it means for a major political figure like Churchill to represent this monument to aristocratic power and military conquest. Is it a self-conscious statement? How does this artwork reflect Churchill's own view of the social order? Historians can shed light on these questions, using sources like Churchill's writings and biographies to explore the relationship between his art and his social and political life.